Amid fresh controversy following a Russian official's comments that the country could annex the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Mikhail Kamynin said the area's status must be decided within the framework of the Joint Control Commission for the Georgian-Ossetian Conflict Resolution.
"Russia's position is that status issues must be discussed at the third stage of talks within the Joint Group," Mikhail Kamynin said.
The JCC involves Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia and the Russian republic of North Ossetia, which is separated from the secessionist province by the North Caucasus mountain range.
Commenting on media reports that Gennady Bukayev, an aide to the Russian prime minister, had told a joint session of the governments of South and North Ossetia that Russia had made a principled decision to annex South Ossetia, Kamynin said Bukayev had been incorrectly cited in the press.
"As far as I know, Bukayev is planning to report to the Commission on these issues at a March 27-28 session in Vladikavkaz [the capital of North Ossetia]," Kamynin added.
"The session of the republic's governments attended by Bukayev was held in the context of considering a concept of a most favored nation zone, initiated by former Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvaniya and Eduard Kokoity [the leader of South Ossetia]," the diplomat said.
Under the concept, the zone will include one region of North Ossetia, all of South Ossetia and another district of Georgia.
The spokesman said that the discussion of the issue fully complied with the provisions of agreement on reviving the economy in the conflict zone and repatriating internally displaced people as of December 2000 and highlighted cooperation between the Russian and Georgian region with South Ossetia.
A bloody conflict broke out in 1991 after South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia mediated ceasefire agreements between the sides, and Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the conflict zones ever since. The regional authorities want to rejoin North Ossetia, although the two were separate administrative entities in the Soviet era and were separated further after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
