Russia defends its friends

Today, at a joint press conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov and the president of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, had made some important statements. The most important to them were statements about further extension of mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Abkhazia.

So Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced the position that the Russian side: "Everything that happens in Abkhazia now, it's a sovereign matter of Abkhazia, and this also applies to South Ossetia ... Russia strictly fulfills all its obligations set forth in the agreements between Medvedev and Sarkozy September 8, according to which the seven days we were to withdraw troops from the Line of Poti-Senaki. Russia did it in five days ... With the arrival of a mission to the region by international observers, we list all our peacekeeping contingent to positions held on 7 August. All of the above does not include the competence of the international community and Abkhazia is a sovereign matter. Russian troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia - this is not the peacekeepers and troops located there at the request of the presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. After signing the agreements by their presence in the region will be brought international legal framework ".

Russian troops will maintain its military presence in the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

As the Minister of speech, one of the important outcomes of the meeting were decisions on the deployment of Russian troops in Abkhazia.

Thus, the Russian peacekeepers, as expected, according to agreements on the plan Medvedev and Sarkozy will withdraw to positions prior to the start of hostilities. Instead, the republic will be placed permanent military contingent, which will protect the frontiers of Abkhazia, along with the army of this country. The contingent will be based on Russian military bases.

Similar measures will be taken and South Ossetia, which is as it departed Sergei Lavrov. The Foreign Minister of Russia plans to discuss with President Eduard Kokoity matters diplomatic and military cooperation between the two countries.

As noted earlier, now the Russian military presence in the new republics of the Caucasus is not in the status of peacekeepers, and the status of a limited military contingent entered in the republic at the request of local authorities.

Criticism of the West doomed

Some Western policy, which still do not recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as regimes of power in these countries, separatist, criticized Russia for military assistance provided to the new republics of the Caucasus. Among their criticisms, they note that the deployment of Russian military in the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be aligned with Georgia.

However, this criticism on the facts that are totally meaningless because, given that Russia had already recognized the independence of the new republics of the Caucasus, the troops placed within the borders of sovereign states at the request of their direct supervision. So the issue of deployment in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian troops nor has any relation to the Georgian side.

And in Georgia, particularly in the line of Poti-Senaki, will be an international peacekeeping force. EU and OSCE observers will monitor compliance with all conditions of the truce, registered in the Medvedev-Sarkozy, and to prevent further escalation of the conflict.