Saakashvili Condemns Kokoity’s Statement

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili expressed protest regarding the recent statement of South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, who said that Tskhinvali will consider any forces, which express readiness to replace the Russian peacekeepers, as “aggressors.” 

“We want to be careful. But the problem is when yesterday the leader of the separatist enclave [South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity], who regularly meets with the Russian President, says that he will liquidate everyone – Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Europeans, who decide to undertake a peacekeeping mission in the Tskhinvali region,” the Georgian President said while addressing the Security Forum in Tbilisi.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said at a news briefing on February 17 that Tskhinvali will support the Russian peacekeeping operation and will never agree on the involvement of other countries.

“If Georgia accepts a decision at the level of the President and the Government to withdraw the peacekeepers, they can pull out their [Georgian] peacekeepers. We do not need third countries here, including those who have already expressed readiness to become main peacekeepers… Another formations, except for the Russian, will be considered as aggressors,” Kokoity said. 

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