This is good news for two sides, the Georgian government and his family, Nabzdorov said. "I've been here for over a year-and-a-half by now; this has been the place of my permanent service. I was appointed here by orders of the President and the Defense Minister. The possibility of handover came under consideration in May," he said. In early May, he made a short trip back home to discuss the details of his prospective transfer.
Nabzdorov said he had been offered another job, which he had accepted, and that it had been agreed he would transfer as soon as a suitable candidate is found to take over. According to him, the decision was made before the escalation of the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway republic in late May.
"Now the Georgian side is presenting things in such a way as though it were they who had had me replaced. I've no idea what I may have done to offend them," Nabzdorov said.
"I perform my duties in line with my mandate, making no distinction between the Georgians and the Ossetians.... I have never taken sides, but have been keeping neutrality all along, as I am supposed to under the mandate," he pointed out.
"But as a saying goes, one will look at the speck in his brother's eye, but won't consider the plank in his own. This is why it seems to some that I take sides. But whatever the wishes of the Georgian side may be, there is the Commander-in-Chief and the Defense Minister of Russia, who will say: 'Nabzdorov, your term is over, you are going tomorrow,' and I will go."
Asked about his new position, Nabzdorov said that after the handover in August, the public would learn what his new job was going to be and who had been selected to succeed him as Commander of the Russian peacekeeping force inthe South Ossetia.
