De facto Tskhinvali representative Murat Jioev says Georgia’s proposal of vaccine delivery is ‘political propaganda’

Representative of the de facto president of the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region on post-conflict issues, Murat Jioev, said Georgia is offering a quantity of vaccine that is not enough for the region and ‘this is nothing more than political propaganda’.

South Ossetia does not expect any help from Georgia and does not even want it”,  Jioev said, reacting to the proposal of the Georgian authorities to vaccinate residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia against coronavirus on Tbilisi controlled territory.

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Jioev also said that Georgia tried to offer assistance a year ago, but even then, representatives of de facto Tskhinvali explained that they were ready to cooperate with international organisations that were really ready to provide assistance to South Ossetia, ‘which would be delivered to the republic only from Russia’.

Jioev said that at the Geneva discussions, the issue of vaccination was not raised, although the representative of Georgia mentioned it in one phrase.

On March 30, Georgian Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality, Tea Akhvlediani said that medical workers and individuals above 65 residing in Georgia’s Russia-occupied Tskhinvali and Abkhazia regions would be able to undergo Covid-19 vaccination on Tbilisi-controlled territory.

Later after the offer de-facto Abkhaz officials stated that they are looking forward to the assistance from their ‘strategic partner’ – Russia.

Georgia, which has received 43,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 29,250 doses of Pfizer vaccine, enables target groups to choose between the two. The country is also expecting to receive doses of the Sinopharm vaccine next month.