MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - The president of South Ossetia said Friday that the breakaway Georgian region is de facto part of Russia and merely needed to establish this legally through Russia's highest constitutional court.
"At present, South Ossetia is de facto a part of Russia, because 90% of the citizens of the unrecognized republic are Russian citizens who have Russian passports," Eduard Kokoity said.
He said Russian laws are enforced in South Ossetia and that the ruble is an official currency.
"This is clear evidence that the republic is de facto a constituent member of Russia, and all we have to do is to establish this fact legally," Kokoity said, adding that South Ossetia was preparing legal documents to submit to Russia's Constitutional Court in its bid to join the country.
Kokoity's statements come in the wake of a heated verbal exchange between Russia and Georgia over the rotation of a Russian peacekeeping battalion in South Ossetia, which Georgian authorities deemed illegal and a violation of the country's territorial integrity.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Georgia did not have control over the disputed region.
Kokoity said Georgia was attempting to discredit the mission of Russian peacekeepers in the region, and was looking for military confrontation.
"The puppet leadership in Georgia is not able to conduct a political dialogue at present ... and is looking for a military solution," he said, adding that several countries, including the U.S. and Ukraine, were supplying Georgia with military hardware.
The South Ossetian leader cited the 1774 Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji between Russia and the Ottoman Empire to claim that a united Ossetia was part of the Russian Empire in 1774.
"The people of South Ossetia have a full historical right to live together with the brotherly people of North Ossetia [a region in southern Russia], from whom they were forcibly separated in Soviet times," he said. "There is not a single document stating that South Ossetia withdrew from Russia, and the Constitutional Court should decide whether there is a precedent."
Kokoity said South Ossetia determined its goal to join Russia during a 1991 referendum that had met all international standards and should be recognized by the international community.
