Food shortages in Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region
Dairy products and children’s food are in particular deficit in Tskhinvali region. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Tweet 
Share
Local media reports that there is not enough food in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Tskhinvali region, with dairy products and children’s food in particular deficit.
Media outlet Rec reports that food has not entered from Russia into the region for more than a week due to certain, technical problems and the local ‘de facto authorities are holding talks to resolve the problem.’
De facto government of Tskhinvali closed crossing points between the region and the rest of Georgia in September 2019, depriving locals of having access to everyday items, quality medical aid and other necessities they received on Tbilisi-administered territory.
The reason for the illegal closure was the opening of an ordinary police post on the Tbilisi-controlled territory at the end of summer 2019, in the village of Chorchana, Khashuri municipality.
De facto Tskhinvali says that the police post ‘is too close to our territory, creating security threats.’
They say that the crossing points will reopen only after Tbilisi removes the police post.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said yesterday that the closure of the Akhalgori crossing point connecting the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region, with the rest of Georgia “is yet another violation of human rights”.
The Russian-controlled de facto leadership of Tskhinvali has closed the Razdakhani crossing point for Akhalgori population, which was opened for pensioners only on January 24, 2020, after almost a five-month illegal closure.Local civic activists say that a small portion of those who were allowed to leave the Russian-occupied district decided to stay on the Tbilisi-administered territory either for treatment or to spend the winter with relatives.
Georgian civic activist Tamar Mearakishvili, who lives in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Akhalgori district, has released the photos of Akhalgori, with no people walking on the streets and lights rarely coming from windows.Mearakishvili, who is politically persecuted by de facto authorities of Tskhinvali, says that many people have left the district since the Russia-Georgia 2008 war, when Russia expanded its control on Akhalgori.
De facto authorities of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region has temporarily opened the crossing point between occupied Akhalgori district and the rest of Georgia for pensioners only after an almost five-month closure, which has created a severe humanitarian situation on the ground. Local civic activist Tamar Mearakishvili reports that the crossing point opened earlier today for pensioners “whose only income is the pension issued by the central government” of Georgia.
President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili has called upon the international community to react to the violation of elementary humanitarian principles in the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region after the confiscation and prohibition of Georgian-labeled medicines from the occupied territory.
There is not enough food in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Tskhinvali region, with dairy products and children’s food still in particular deficit. It has been more than two weeks since food has not entered from Russia into the region due to ‘certain, technical problems,’ while the de facto authorities illegally closed crossing points with the rest of Georgia in early September of 2019.