The 228th (Special) Meeting of the Council of Federation

August 25. At the 228th (special) meeting of the Council of Federation the Chairman of the council Sergei Mironov appealed to the senator with the proposal to accept the appeal to the Russian President with the request to recognize independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Opening the meeting of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament Sergei Mironov said that the addresses from South Ossetia and Abkhazia were based on the free will of their peoples.

For more than 15 years, Sergei Mironov resumed, Russia strictly had been standing by the principle of the territorial integrity of Georgia. "Our country fulfilled in good faith all the international agreements that concern the arrangement of conflicts between Georgia and Abkhazia and between Georgia and South Ossetia, practically taking part in different search of the solution", he said.

In the opinion of the Chairman of the Council of Federation, now after the aggression of Georgia it has become obvious that those conflicts could be never turned back to the previous shape. "People can’t live in the same country with those who used to burn alive, droved on with tanks and fired at their relatives and neighbors, who pushed them out of their fatherland, who destroyed their houses and belongings, who fired at our peacemakers’ backs and killed the injured”.

In his speech Sergei Mironov informed his colleagues about the background. In particular, the head of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament said that the legal base for independence of the Republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was formed before the international recognition of nowadays Georgia and its integration into the UNO nations in July of 1992.

"Tbilisi leaves no hope to arrange the conflict by taking acts of aggression with the political, financial and technical support of some states”, Sergei Mironov stressed.

Appeal of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry A. Medvedev for the recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Honorable Mr. President!

The Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation,

entirely supporting the policy of the President of Russian Federation toward South Ossetia and Abkhazia,

stressing that for many years Russia has been taking part in searching a peaceful way of arrangement of the Georgian conflicts with South Ossetia and Abkhazia,

noticing that the denial of Georgia to sign a treaty of the non-use of force and the forthcoming aggression in August 2008 that caused thousands of deaths among the South-Ossetian citizens and escalation of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, finally deforced Georgian government of the right to claim that peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia should depended on its advanturist policy causing the humanitarian disaster,

welcoming the aspiration of peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to independence, peace and stability,

taking into consideration repeated addresses of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to recognize their independence, including those received on 22nd and 24th of August, 2008,

requests to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

According to the Council of Federation Press Service.