By RIA Novosti,
Tbilisi : Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze has accused Russia of trying to annex the country’s unrecognised republics.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to develop measures to aid Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Moscow is expected to cooperate with both the de-facto authorities in the two republics. The Russian foreign ministry said that in developing relations with Georgia’s breakaway republics, Russia did not want a confrontation with Tbilisi.
The move has prompted the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to call an emergency session of the National Security Council to discuss Russia’s policy regarding Georgia’s unrecognised republics.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia proclaimed independence from Tbilisi in 1991 following the break up of the Soviet Union.
After the session, Bakradze told reporters: “We assess the measures … as an attempt to legalise the process of a de facto annexation of the two Georgian regions.”
The minister said Russia “violated international laws and the Georgian side would take all diplomatic, political and legal steps to prevent this process”.
Shortly after Kosovo declared its independence in February, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, along with Moldova’s Transdnestr, requested Russia’s parliament, the UN and other organisations to recognise their independence.
In March, the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, proposed that the president and the government consider the issue of whether to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The Federation Council is due to discuss the issue of recognising the two breakaway republics at a session April 25.