Russian Side Protests Georgian Reservists’ Training in Conflict Zone

Commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces deployed in the South Ossetian conflict zone, Russian Maj. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov expressed the Russian side’s protest over the training of the Georgian reserve forces in villages which are located within the conflict zone, breakaway South Ossetia’s Press and Information Committee reported on December 6.

In a letter sent to the co-chairmen of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC), involving the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and North Ossetian sides, Maj. Gen. Kulakhmetov claims that the Georgian villages of Dzevera and Akhalsopeli, where the Georgian reserve forces are currently undergoing trainings, are located in the conflict zone.

A 1999 peace agreement defines he conflict zone as the territory that resides within a 15-kilometer radius from the center of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.

“Military observers from the Joint Peacekeeping Forces [involving Georgian, Russian and Ossetian troops], as well as representatives of the OSCE, are not allowed to monitor these villages… Maj. Gen. Kulakhmetov considers these actions groundless and that they aim to destabilize the situation in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone,” the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported.

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