"A crew of separatists-they don't deserve any other name-are applying for a part of Georgia to join Russia. Just why? As I see it, that comes out of sheer ignorance, a lack of legal and other education. Georgia and Russia are partners. Their current ties rule out the application considered any seriously, especially as official Russia is siding with Georgia in its territorial integrity drive.
"What we see in South Ossetia is an unhealthy hullabaloo round Georgian peace efforts. Tbilisi is proceeding from goodwill to peace in everything it does-and it all comes against a wall of misinterpretation.
"The post-Soviet area has forgotten the idiom of peace. What we have here is a lack of trust. We don't lose patience, and don't expect a lightning effect," said the diplomat.
"We are repairing a railway [in South Ossetia], we are offering medical services and humanitarian aid. We distribute mineral fertilisers free. The Georgian TV and radio are broadcasting in Osset. Those are the means at our disposal, which we are using-and the public is offering a very hopeful response," stressed the ambassador.
Eduard Kokoity, South Osset president, addressed newsmen at the State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower house, earlier on the day. He said he was to pass South Osset rulers' appeal to the federal top. "South Ossetia is to join Russia. In that, we are proceeding from political and legal reasons rooted in the distant past. Our appeal complies with the international and the Russian law alike. It is high time to give up the epithets 'North' and 'South' as we refer to Ossetia. It is high time to see that Ossetia is one."
Mr. Kokoity is shifting the entire blame for South Osset tensions on Georgia's present regime. "The Georgian top cannot cope with its pledges, and so is offering us tensions built-up," he said.
North Ossetia is Russia's constituent republic. The two Osset-populated entities lie to either side of the Caucasian mountain range, and border each other astraddle it.
