Georgia Slams Chief of Russian Peacekeepers in South Ossetia
The Georgian Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador to Georgia Vladimir Chkhikvishvili on July 22 to express their concerns regarding recent statements made by Sviatoslav Nabzdorov, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping troops in the South Ossetian conflict zone, who questioned Georgia’s territorial integrity.
The Russian commander told Georgian reporters on July 21 that “the Russian-Georgian border does not pass at the Roki Pass. This place is controlled only by Russia.”
The tunnel at the Roki Pass on the Georgian-Russian border links Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia with its neighboring Russia’s North Ossetian Republic.
“I will inform Moscow about Tbilisi’s opinion immediately,” Russian Ambassador to Georgia Vladimir Chkhikvishvili told reporters after talks in the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
According to Chief of Staff of the Georgian Armed Forced Givi Iukuridze, Sviatoslav Nabzdorov will leave South Ossetia in two weeks. Maj.Gen. Marat Kulahmetov will take over Nabzdorov’s position as the commander of the Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone.
