Archive - 7/9/2009

The Russian company GAZPROM and South Ossetian “Energetika” signed a contract on supplies of natural gas from Russia to South Ossetia. As reported by the acting first deputy Prime-Minister of South Ossetia Khasan Pliev, the contract was signed on 3 September.
“The contract envisages the price of 7,26 RUR per cubic meter. It is cheaper than the price for gas received through Georgia. In January 2009, the price was 13,8 RUR per cubic meter. Hence, for the South Ossetian budget, the price is more than 6 RUR per cubic meter cheaper than before”, said Pliev. He added that anther important aspect is the sustainability of supplies directly from Russia.

Georgian journalist Levan Gudadze with his family is seeking asylum in South Ossetia. As reported by the mother of the journalist Roza Bichikashvili, they decided to leave Georgia because of threats against her son for his journalist work. “Levan had led three informational web-pages in Tbilisi, which were one by one closed by the authorities. He received phone calls and letters with threats and therefore, we decided to leave the country”, said Bichikashvili.

Recently, the Chairman of the RSO Government Badim Brovtsev held a session on new staffing policy in South Ossetia. The session was attended by the executive staff of the Government. During this session, the Prime-Minister underlined that it was necessary to reorient the staffing policy to young specialists. Eleonora Bedoev, the acting Minister for Youth, Sports and Tourism commented on this decision of the new Government: “For 18 year, the young people were fighting for freedom with arms in their hands. The youth played a significant role in the struggle for recognized independence of the Republic of South Ossetia. Today, the new leadership of South Ossetia stakes on youth and I am sure that this youth will justify this trust and will build up the ruined state.

On 3 September, a preparatory meeting of the working groups within the frames of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was held at the South Ossetian-Georgian border. As the head of the South Ossetian Delegation Merab Chigoev underlined, “official meetings were suspended upon the initiative of the South Ossetian side due to unsettled issues of the meetings’ presidency and the fate of South Ossetian citizens detained by Georgian special services”.
”These are three citizens who were abducted in October 2008 from their villages in Tskhinval and Znaur districts. No progress in these issues induced our decision to suspend our participation in official meetings. Nonetheless, with the repeated addresses from the Co-Chairmen of the Geneva discussions and the appeal of the Russian MFA, we resumed these contacts but in the format of preparation for official meetings”, said Chigoev.