Russian FM, de facto Abkhaz FM meet to ‘discuss security issues’ in S. Caucasus
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Foreign Minister of the occupied Abkhazia region Daur Kove met in Moscow yesterday.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with de facto Foreign Minister Daur Kove of Georgia’s occupied region of Abkhazia to discuss security issues in the South Caucasus, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.
The ministry claims that security cooperation is important as the region is challenging.
The Russian MFA claims that Russian troops “help” Abkhaz so-called border guards control “borders” with Georgia effectively.
Only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria have recognised the two occupied regions of Georgia Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) as independent republics since the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.
The rest of the international community says that the historic Georgian regions are occupied by Russia.
- The War in Abkhazia from 1992 to 1993 was fought between Georgian government forces for the most part and Abkhaz separatist forces, Russian armed forces and North Caucasian militants. The separatists received support from thousands of North Caucasus and Cossack militants and from the Russian forces stationed in and near Abkhazia.
- Between 13,000 to 20,000 ethnic Georgians and approximately 3,000 Abkhaz were reported killed, more than 250,000 Georgians became internally displaced or refugees and about 2,000 are considered missing.
- Among the missing about 1,500 are ethnic Georgians, up to 200 are ethnic Abkhazians and about 100 are ethnic Ossetians.
The Georgian State Security Service writes in its 2018 report that Russian forces tried to use the two occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) to conduct clandestine, illegal operations.
The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee has urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia's occupied regions of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia, as the committee opened its meeting in Tbilisi earlier today.
The occupying forces in the two Russia-controlled Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) have detained 327 Georgian citizens for “illegally crossing the border” between 2017 and 2019, the Georgian State Security Service says. The agency reports that 242 of 327 were detained for “illegally crossing the border” between Georgia and its eastern occupied Tskhinvali region.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has told the local Azerbaijani population in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia that she would not speak with them in Russian.
Russian-controlled occupation forces have abducted 96-year-old Gora Garibashvili while he was trying to reach a cemetery near the village of Tsunevi, close to the occupation line with breakaway Tskhinvali region, the Georgian Public Broadcaster reports. The man has been illegally detained for “crossing the border” by de facto Tskhinvali authorities several times over the past several years, with the previous illegal detention taking place last year.