Ivanov: Russia will Rotate Troops via Roki Tunnel

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov said on May 31 that Russia will send its troops to rotate the peacekeeping battalion in breakaway South Ossetia via the Roki Tunnel, which links the unrecognized republic with Russia’s North Ossetia, despite Georgia’s protests.

“We have no plans to postpone the rotation process. The rotation will take place as it has been conducted in recent years – through the Roki Tunnel,” Ivanov said on the sidelines of a session of the CIS Defense Ministers’ Council in Baku.

Georgia said Russia’s new troops in South Ossetia entered the Georgian territory through an illegally operating Roki border checkpoint and that the Russian servicemen have no Georgian visas.

But the Russian Defense Minister said that the bilateral agreement with Georgia does not envisage the issuing of visas for the Russian servicemen who are deployed as peacekeepers in the South Ossetian conflict zone.