He enthusiastically appraised all 500 soldiers and General Svyatoslav Nabzdorov, their commander. Russians are valiant and efficient in the current critical situation, said the minister.
As he pointed out, escalation of South Osset tensions started with Georgia blatantly ignoring the peacekeeping mandate. Though it has a similar peacekeeping quota of 500, Georgia has deployed in the recalcitrant republic close on 3,000 law enforcement officers, so the South Osset response was quite predictable.
Russian peacekeepers are doing all they can to keep potential belligerents apart-and are a success, said Mr. Ivanov.
He described the current South Osset situation as extremely ominous. There is only one way to bring things back to normal-all involved parties' close compliance with mixed peacekeepers' mandate, and implementation of Mixed Control Commission resolutions to get the opponents to the negotiation table.
The commission represents Russia, Georgia and the two Osset republics-South Ossetia and North Ossetia, autonomy within Russia.
The minister went on to mention an urgent Russian demand for its military property, confiscated by Georgia. "We must get it back on the spot where it was stolen," Sergei Ivanov angrily said.
Georgia has repeatedly promised to restore to Russia the confiscated unguided missiles and pyrotechnic equipment, but is not good on its word.
As the minister went over to the latest South Osset developments, he mentioned several occasional skirmishes last night and in the small hours today, which, luckily, killed no one.
Tensions have come to an edge through deliberate efforts-the area was calm these last ten years, he pointed out.
As our correspondent reported from Georgia today, its President Mikhail Saakashvilialso made a reference to the arsenal, intended for peacekeepers and confiscated July 7. "I'll better destroy those missiles in public with my own hands than put up with the latest weaponry taken to South Ossetia. I said so to Russians today," he said.
