Vladikavkaz/Agency Caucasus – President Taymuraz Mamsurov of North Ossetia made a claim that foreign policymakers whose efforts were aimed at securing the territorial integrity of Georgia made attempts to separate North Ossetia from Russia and combine it with South Ossetia to form a united, independent state.
This surprising claim came from Mamsurov shortly after some Western diplomats visited Vladikavkaz. Last Sunday, Mamsurov received as his guests Aleksei Ostrovski, who chairs the Duma Committee of Relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and his aide. "Envoys from various countries and agencies from various international organizations that favor the combination of the North with the South Ossetia have made more visits to Caucasus for the past six months. There are plans to set the United Ossetia as an independent country as well. We think that that is absolute nonsense and is part of an insidious plan."
Mamsurov quoted the Westerners as flattering the Ossetians with words that ran as follows: "The Ossetians should be in Europe. Since Europe has come to you through Georgia, you can now correct this historic injustice. Go to the NATO through Georgia, it’s closer to you."
"The Ossetians voluntarily chose to be within Russia, and they have done their service with confidence and deservedly… They have done whatever was needed, not to be a burden on Russia but to back Russia up. Our grandparents acted this way and we want to follow in their footsteps," Mamsurov said to express his rejection of the Western flatterers.
Ostrovsky has carried out a thorough inspection of the living conditions to which refugees are exposed in North Ossetia after they fled the war between Georgia and Ossetia 15-16 years ago. Ostrovsky thinks that nobody other than President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia can have the most adverse effect on the territorial integrity of his country. "His obsession with the desire to get his country belong to the NATO will in the first place make his country’s regional totality doubtful, because it is publicly known that no referendums on Georgia’s accession to the NATO should be held in Abkhazia or South Ossetia." OSTR/ÖZ/FT
