Russia Ready for UN Security Council Session

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on July 14 it was willing to discuss its recent actions, including fighter jet sorties over South Ossetia, at a UN Security Council session requested by Georgia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry admitted on July 10 that Russian aircraft had flown a sortie over Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia on July 8 to “cool hot heads in Tbilisi” and to prevent, as it said, a planned military incursion into South Ossetia by Georgian forces.

Georgia said it was “military aggression” and would seek UN Security Council censure of Russia for the airspace violations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that Tbilisi’s request for a UN Security Council session was part of its attempts “to stir up anti-Russian sentiment at international fora.”

It also said that Russia would continue pushing for a draft resolution presented last week to the UN Security Council session calling on Tbilisi to immediately sign a treaty on the non-use of force and to withdraw troops from upper Kodori Gorge.

Also on July 14 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met in Moscow with a UN team tasked with assessing the peace process in Abkhazia, led by Bertrand Ramcharan, former acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN team arrived in Moscow after visiting Tbilisi and Sokhumi last week.

During the talks in Moscow the Russian side noted that the negotiating process had come to a standstill and “the Georgian side does not meet the commitments under the existing agreements, as well as the UN resolutions.” 

“The Russian side called on the international community, particularly on UN, to send a clear purpose-oriented signal to the conflicting sides, calling on them to resume the negotiating process, which was interrupted in summer 2006… The first move should be immediate signing of the treaty on non-use of force and withdrawal of Georgian armed forces from the Upper Kodori Gorge,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.