Secessionist Officials Hail Duma’s Stance as Breakthrough

Officials from breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia welcomed a statements passed by Russia’s lower house of the Parliament as “a breakthrough” in their independence drive.

Two separate statements made by Russia’s State Duma, approved on December 6, say that the international community should take the independence aspirations of the South Ossetian and Abkhaz people into consideration.

Chief of the Abkhaz Security Council Stanislav Lakoba said that by adopting these statements the Russian Parliament expressed full support for the legitimate requirements of the Abkhaz society expressed during a national gathering in Sokhumi on December 6, Apsnipress news agency reported.
 
Foreign Minister of breakaway South Ossetia Murat Jioyev described the State Duma’s statement on South Ossetia as “an objective evaluation of existing realities.”
 
“The fact that the Russian parliamentarians appealed to the international community to take into account the results of the South Ossetian independence referendum is an important step towards the recognition of South Ossetia’s independence,” the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee quoted Jioyev as saying on December 8.

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