Russia and South Ossetia sign visa-free regime, Georgia protests

Russia and South Ossetia have entered an agreement on visa-free trips of their citizens, which allows cross the border on both sides by domestic passports of Russia and South Ossetia. The document was signed by Sergey Lavrov and Murat Dzhioev, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and South Ossetia. Tbilisi treats this Moscow's step as cynical and illegal.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 30, 2009, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin approved the draft of the intergovernmental agreement with South Ossetia on mutual visa-free travels of citizens of the two countries. The Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to sign this agreement on behalf of the government. A similar Russian-Abkhazian agreement was signed on October 2, 2009. Georgia was also categorically against any Russia's actions in the territory of Abkhazia.

"The agreement allows crossing the Russian-South-Ossetian border in both directions not only by diplomatic, service and general-civil foreign passports, but also by internal passports of Russia and South Ossetia," Mr Lavrov said. He has added that the agreement provides for visa-free stay in the territory of both countries for up to 90 days, as reported by the ITAR-TASS.

Mr Dzhioev, in his turn, expressed his confidence that the signed document and its enforcement would make "its obvious contribution into strategic partnership" of the two states.

Tbilisi has treated the agreement on visa-free regime signed by Russia and South Ossetia as another Moscow's cynical step. Nino Kalandadze, deputy minister of foreign affairs of Georgia, said at today's briefing: "It's a formal visa-free regime, which is a violation of the international law and an illegal action." "It's another attempt of the Russian Federation to formally strengthen and lift the legitimacy of recognition of occupied territories, - fortunately, nobody supports it," the "News-Georgia" Agency quotes Ms Kalandadze as saying.