TBILISI/MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian diplomats said Wednesday that the rotation of Russian peacekeepers in the northern breakaway region of South Ossetia might be postponed again over contentious border checkpoints and unresolved visa issues.
Russian peacekeepers have been in the South Ossetian conflict zone in northern Georgia since the early 1990s and are rotated once in six months. The latest rotation was scheduled for May 23 but was then put off until May 29.
"The problem is that the Nizhny Zaramag checkpoint, which [the Russians] planned to use earlier is not official, and the rotation of peacekeepers ... there is illegal because it provides no border crossing transparency," a Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Peacekeepers and military hardware previously traveled through the Nizhny Zaramag checkpoint on the border between Georgia and the Russian republic of North Ossetia or the Roksky tunnel, which connects the two Ossetias through the Caucasus mountain range.
The spokesman said Russian peacekeepers could cross the border through the Verkhny Lars checkpoint in the same area, which could be used officially along with airports in the capital, Tbilisi, and Batumi, and the Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi.
Russian troops were deployed in the region together with Georgian and Ossetian soldiers to oversee ceasefire agreements after bloody conflicts.
The official explained how Russian peacekeepers could move through Verkhny Lars.
"The Russian side must provide Georgia with a list of rotated peacekeepers who would receive Georgian visas for the rotation period," he said. "Then they will be able to reach the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone in Tskhinvali [South Ossetian capital]."
The spokesman also said Georgia had told Russia repeatedly that Verkhny Lars, and not Nizhny Zaramag, was the official border crossing point.
Commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone Marat Kulakhmetov said the Russian peacekeeping contingent would be replaced as scheduled on May 29.
"The Russian side plans to replace its contingent of 500 in full," he said.
Under a new regulation from Georgian authorities, Russian citizens, including peacekeepers deployed in conflict zones, have been required to hold visas since mid-February.
However, Kulakhmetov said the issue had to be resolved through the foreign ministries of the two countries because the agreement on the peacekeeping contingent did not cover the visa question.
"All the blue helmets fulfill their mandates without any visas because peacekeepers and ordinary citizens are two different categories," he said. "We are not here on our own initiative. We are performing our peacekeeping mission and visas are part of bilateral relations and must be resolved through foreign ministries."
Russia's Ambassador at Large Yury Popov said the Russian Foreign Ministry had proposed holding consultations with Georgia over the visas, but Tbilisi had not demonstrated any interest in the idea.
