Posted on 08/22/2009 6:01:24 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - South Ossetia will seek to join the union being formed by Russia and Belarus, the former Georgian republic's leader said on Friday.
"We will seek this with great pleasure," Eduard Kokoity told reporters, suggesting that Belarus would recognize South Ossetia as an independent state soon.
The only country so far to have followed Russia's example in recognizing South Ossetia and the other self-proclaimed Georgian republic, Abkhazia, is Nicaragua. Belarus has sent mixed signals on whether it will recognize the two regions.
Last month, Belarus's foreign ministry advised Belarusian nationals to abide by Georgian laws when visiting the regions. The comments were welcomed by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and strongly criticized by Moscow.
Moscow recognized South Ossetia last August following a five-day war with Georgia, which attacked the region to regain control of it.
Kokoity unveiled a photo exhibition in Moscow earlier on Friday dedicated to the first anniversary of the republic's recognition by Russia.
He said the exhibit was designed to show that South Ossetia was not only about "war and ruins," but it was a hospitable country, and that it was also a gesture of people's gratitude to Russia.
"I have no doubt that we will realize our potential in the next few years," the leader said.
However, Kokoity voiced concerns over Georgia's ongoing military buildup. "Georgia's military strength is much higher now than before August 2008," he said.
Russia has invested in rebuilding South Ossetia's infrastructure after the war, and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to support both republics' economies and security. It also deployed more troops there after the conflict.
I don’t get it, it’s obvious South Ossetia doesn’t want to be part of Georgia. Even during the Soviet Union it was autonomous from the Georgian Soviet and declared it’s independence from Georgia the second the USSR fell apart.
Georgia should just let them go.
And how do you think they were able to do that? Because the South Ossetians kicked out the Georgians. The Georgians had every right to leave Russia but conversely the South Ossetians had every right to want to stay.
South Ossetians and Georgians hate each other, mostly because the Georgians massacred a lot of them in 1920 (because even then they wanted to be part of Russia).
Do you believe that most Ossetians want to be a part of Russia?
The vast majority do, the ones that don’t are mostly Georgian and they are a small minority there.
Yes, and when Mexicans are a majority of Texas, maybe we should just let Mexico march in and take it, just like the thug Putin and his army of savages did to S. Ossetia.
Self-Determination is only one part of the equation when it comes to territorial changes like this. Texas voted and decided to become part of the Union after being it’s own country and S. Ossetia has done the same. S. Ossetia was forced to become part of the Georgian SSR during the communist regime and promptly left Georgia when the USSR dissolved.
If you want to make an analogy then imagine the US Federal Government disolving, if such a situiation were to occur then Texas would be right in deciding it’s own fate, whatever that might be.
As the Declaration says, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” So there is no justification for Texas to leave now nor should we allow it to do so even if Mexicans are the majority.
But when the USSR fell apart; Georgia, the Ukraine, the Baltics, and a dozen other regions decided to leave Russia. As much as a right as they had to leave, so did others have a right to stay. Since independence, Georgia has not controlled S. Ossetia and the only reason that I see that Georgia has a claim on the region is that the SOVIETS forced them to be a single SSR. And what justification is that???
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