Lavrov: ‘Problem of S.Ossetia, Abkhazia Closed-Out’

Tbilisi’s aggression against South Ossetia has put an end to Georgia’s territorial integrity, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said in an address to the UN General Assembly on September 27.

In the speech Lavrov brought up the August war in the context of what he called U.S. “unipolar” policies, which he said had failed not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also had helped to provoke the August war.

“The illusion of a unipolar world confused many,” he said. “For some people, it generated a desire to make an all-in stake on it. In exchange for total loyalty they expected to receive a carte blanche to resolve all their problems by any means. The all-permissiveness syndrome that they developed went rampant, out of all possible control, on the night before 8 August when the aggression was unleashed on South Ossetia.”

“The bombing of the sleeping city of Tskhinval, the killing of civilians and peacekeepers trampled under foot all settlement agreements thus putting an end to the territorial integrity of Georgia.”

Lavrov justified Russia’s military intervention by the need to save the lives of its citizens and peacekeepers. He said that Russia helped South Ossetia “to repel aggression.”

He also said that the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Moscow was “the only possible measure to ensure their security,” especially “taking into account all previous record of the chauvinistic attitude of the Georgian leaders.”

He then mentioned Georgia’s late President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and said that Gamsakhurdia “under the slogan of ‘Georgia for Georgians’ ordered the deportation of Ossetians to Russia, abolished the autonomous status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and later unleashed war.”

He said that the current Georgian leadership pursued "a persistent policy" to undermine negotiating mechanisms through "continous provocations."

“Finally [the Georgian leadership] trampled under foot the peace process by launching a new murderous war on the night before August 8,” Lavrov said.

“This problem has been closed out now. The future of the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has been reliably secured by the Treaties between Moscow and Tskhinval and Sokhum,” he continued. “With the implementation of Medvedev-Sarkozy plan and our strong commitment, the situation around the two republics is going to be finally stabilized.”

He also said that the foreign policy of the “Georgian regime” was aimed “exclusively at provoking confrontation in the world in the pursuit of their own objectives, which have nothing in common with the goal of ensuring security in the Caucasus.”

“This crisis in the Caucasus proved again that it is impossible or even disastrous to try to resolve the existing problems in the blind folds of the unipolar world,” Lavrov said.

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