Государственное информационное агентство "Рес"

Russia saved the people of South Ossetia from extermination during Georgia’s aggression in August 2008. Russia recognized the Republic of South Ossetia, established diplomatic relations, concluded a treaty of friendship and cooperation and is providing assistance in social and economic revival and maintenance of security after the 20 years of permanent aggression of Georgia against South Ossetia. The first working visit of the Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev to the Republic of South Ossetia speaks for the fact that Russia will further on develop the friendly relations with our young state, implement joint projects in various sectors to the benefit of the people and to support peace in the Caucasus.

The visit of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev to the Republic of South Ossetia is an important event not only for South Ossetia, but for the world policy. This is a sign of deep-rooted, well-thought and democratic actions. This is the real and constructive action by the Super Power targeted exclusively at peace and stability in the South Caucasus.
The visit of Dmitry Medvedev once again proved the positive role of Russia in the Caucasus policy.
Concrete and realistic approach in Russia’s strategy is obvious.
The visit of Dmitry Medvedev was long awaited. South Ossetia has a special attitude towards Russia, a respect based on centuries old links.
During the visit, the sides once again confirmed the strategy for further cooperation in accordance with the international and legal documents signed between the Republic of South Ossetia and the Russian Federation.

The RSO Parliament Speaker Stanislav Kochiev received the Head of the Russian office of "Amnesty International" (AI) Sergey Nikitin. The meeting focused on human right situation in South Ossetia and Georgia during and after the war in August 2008. According to Nikitin, the AI issued a report "Peaceful population on the front-line: Russian-Georgian conflict". "My colleagues in London are planning to issue a sequel report to survey the current human rights situation. I am staying in Tskhinval today and tomorrow, my colleagues are in Georgia. The are also having meetings with officials. Today I had a meeting with the Minister of Press and the Tskhinval city Mayor. I am planning to meet the Prosecutor General and the Interior Minister. For tomorrow, meetings with Murat Djioev, the Foreign Minister and the Human Rights Commissioner to the President of South Ossetia David Sanakoev have been scheduled", said Nikitin.

The Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev told IA RES about the 6th round of Geneva talks taking place on 1 July
Boris Chochiev: Back in February, an agreement on Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was achieved within the frames of the Geneval talks. We agreed that all organizational issues will be discussed and settled at the Mechanism meetings. As you know, there were two meetings held – in Ergneti and in Dvani. None of these meetings resulted in our agreement on chairmanship of the meetings. We have suggested two variants. Representatives of Russia and the EU might co-chair the meetings, since these are the signatories of the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreements. We had also proposed that chairmanship at the meetings would be rotating between the participating sides. None of our proposals was adopted.

At today’s session, the members of the RSO Parliament discussed the draft law “On Defense” and the assignment of Carina Tskhovrebova as the judge to the Supreme Court of South Ossetia.
As reported by the press-service of the RSO Parliament, the MPs approved the candidature of Carina Tskhovrebova proposed by the RSO President as a judge to the Supreme Court, and adopted the Law “On Defense” in the first hearing.

On 5-12 July, in Germany, the Council of Europe (CoE) is holding a youth "Peace Camp" on settlement and transformation of conflicts. Representatives of South Ossetia should have also participated. However, as the Chairperson of the Association of Young Journalists Irina Kelekhsaev told IA RES, the participation of representatives from South Ossetia and Abkhazia was rejected – the facilitators explained the refusal with the fact that "the Embassies of Germany and France found it impossible to issue visas to these participants".

Solid traditions of parliamentarianism had developed in South Ossetia to share experience in parliamentary activity with other states, stated the President of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity in his welcoming speech to the participants of the Round-table “Development of parliamentarianism – development of South Ossetia’s Statehood”, held in Tskhinval. We are building up normal relations. The agreements signed between the RSO Parliament and the State Duma of the Russian Federation set grounds for the development of our parliamentarianism”, stressed Kokoity.
”Today we should discuss not only the issues related to parliamentarianism, but also security, because the territory of South Ossetia is the Caucasus, the region with persistent security threats. We should do our best to ensure security and stability here”, emphasized the President.
Eduard Kokoity wished the participants a fruitful work.

Hasty decisions with adoption of a new Constitution of South Osseti and amendments introduced in the Constitution, are not always optimal, stated the Chairman of the RF State Duma for International relations Konstantin Kosachev who arrived in Tskhinval to participate in the Round-table “Development of Parliamentarianism – a successful development of statehood of the Republic of South Ossetia”. According to Kosachev, Russian MPs and experts were willing to offer to their South Ossetian colleagues with the Russian experience in constitutional development. “The essence of this experience in the fact that through a transitional period, when power institutions are just developing, hasty decisions in relation to adoption of a new Constitution, or amendments to it, are not always optimal.

A working meeting between the President of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity and hte Parliament Speaker Stanislav Kochiev. During the meeting, Stanislav Kochiev told the president about the results of his trip to Moscow, where he had meetings with Ambassadors of various states in the Russian Federation. According to the Speaker, he had meetings with the Ambassadors of Cuba, Nicaragua, Moldova, etc.

At the threshold of the visit of the US. President Barak Obama to Moscow, the mothers of the South Ossetian kept in Georgia addressed the US. President with a request to influence the Georgian authorities so that they release their children detained in Georgian prisons upon false charges.
“No matter where in the world human rights are violated, Barak Obama pays much attention to their observance. Mothers of the abducted persons do hope that even the Georgian authorities will listen to his opinion and the US. President will show his sympathy and will help with bringing the children back to their homes”, said David Sanakoev.
According to him, “13 South Ossetians are still in detention in Georgian prisons. Seven of them were declared missing by the Georgian authorities, though we have proofs, including video material, that these people are detained by the Georgian law enforcement bodies and that they are subjected to tortures. This was repeatedly voiced at the Geneva discussions”.