TBILISI, February 15 (RIA Novosti) - The leadership of South Ossetia said Wednesday that visas would be introduced for Georgian nationals entering the self-proclaimed republic if Tbilisi continued its recent provocations.
Speaking at a news conference in the capital of Tskhinvali, South Ossetian Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev said, "If the wave of provocations occurring in the past two weeks does not stop, we will have to resort to retaliatory measures and reinforce border control."
According to the minister, South Ossetia was until recently trying to avoid the measure so as not to escalate tensions, but now "the Interior Ministry has been instructed to work on the details of visa regulations."
The Georgian defense minister said last Friday that the country was introducing visas for Russian peacekeepers deployed on the border with the breakaway province of South Ossetia. His statement followed the detention of three Russian servicemen for entering Georgia without visas.
Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the region since the early 1990s as part of a trilateral peacekeeping force to monitor ceasefire agreements between Georgia and South Ossetia. The self-proclaimed republic has been cultivating close ties with Russia, and many South Ossetians have applied for Russian citizenship.
Tbilisi has repeatedly accused Moscow of illegally issuing passports for Ossetian separatists and supplying them with arms.
