Russian MP: Tensions Anticipated in Abkhazia, South Ossetia

Russian MP Andrey Kokoshin, the Chairman of the Committee on CIS Affairs in the Russian Duma Council, which is the Parliament?s lower house, said on December 21 that the situation in Georgia?s breakaway Abkhaz and South Ossetian regions will be aggravated following the appointment of Irakli Okruashvili as Georgia?s Defense Minister.
 
?The Russian Duma met Okruashvili?s appointment as Defense Minister with alarm, since he represents the ?party of war? in the Georgian government,? RIA Novosti quotes MP Andrei Kokoshin as saying on December 21.
 
Many Russian parliamentarians, as well as the authorities in breakaway South Ossetia, have been accusing Irakli Okruashvili of supporting a forceful resolution to the South Ossetian conflict.