South Ossetia Leader: Georgia Should Repent of Aggression

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Georgia should repent of its agression against South Ossetia and Abkhazia by signing an agreement on non-use of force, but Tbilisi has been evading it, President of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov said Wednesday.

In 2008, Georgia launched a military offensive against the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, ending in a five-day war with Russia. Both regions declared their independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and were recognized by Russia following the conflict. Georgia does not recognize the existence of South Ossetia as a discrete geographical and political entity.

"We do not see the changes. A sentiment that now exists in Georgia, in fact, is in no way different from…that in 2008. So today, there are no relations between our country and Georgia. We believe that Georgia should repent of its actions and give South Ossetia guarantee not to repeat the events of August 2008. By signing the agreement on the non-use of force. That is how the question has been put by the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Tibilov said in an interview with the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

Tibilov said that Georgia has been evading the agreement because Tbilisi does not want to "accept the reality."

Following Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russian then-president Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy approved a peace plan to resolve the conflict. According to the plan, the Geneva consultations on security in the Caucasus have been launched.

In April, Abkhazian Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Chirikba said that the agreement with Georgia on non-use of force was an extremely difficult and "elusive" task despite multiple consultations on the issue because for Georgia such an agreement meant recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.