Moscow remedies Kokoity’s words about Georgian refugees

Moscow/Agency Caucasus – The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a remedial statement shortly after South Ossetia’s President Eduard Kokoity said in the wake of the war that Georgians were evacuated from the Georgian villages in South Ossetia and they would not be allowed to return again in the future.  Kokoity’s words provoked remarks from the Georgian as well as Western news media that his statement was “the admission of ethnic cleansing” while Russian Foreign Ministry said in its statement that Kokoity made an emotional assertion because of the war’s destructive effects that would not immediately vanish.

“The Georgian refugees have the full right to return to South Ossetia,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry statement. Those who had to leave their homes could return in compliance with the international set of laws when the circumstances that make it necessary to leave vanish, it said additionally, though it added with special emphasis that it would take a long time for the Georgian refugees to be able to return.  

KU/ÖZ/FT