World

South Ossetia PM Sacked, Borders Closed After More Attacks

by sara star | August 4, 2009 at 04:06 pm

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The president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity has closed the borders to Georgia as shelling continues. Details are not available, but speculation is that Tbilisi is aggressively seeking to dismantle the independence of South Ossetia. Russian troops are stationed there by request of Kokoity, since 80% of the citizens carry Russian passports.

Koloity has also dissolved the cabinet, and the Prime Minister's seat has been vacated due to "health reasons".

Georgia has asked the USA for more arms. Obama and Medvedev talk tonight.

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity Tuesday sacked the country’s prime minister and dissolved the cabinet, officials said.

Irina Gagloeva from the Committee for Information and the Press in South Ossetia said the attacks from Georgia have recently become more frequent.

...“The Ossetian village of Otrev was shelled from inside a Georgian village. Shells were fired from mortars. There were two of them. Now, an operational investigative group is working there to find out more details of what happened. However, one can be absolutely positive that this is another of the usual Georgian provocations which have recently become more frequent. This is the fourth shooting attack over the last two weeks,” she said.

...traffic movement across the border, as well as crossing it on foot has been stopped.

Russian troops have been legally based in South Ossetia and Abkhazia after the two republics signed deals on cooperation and protection with Moscow.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the "lessons of last year's Georgian crisis" in a telephone conversation late Tuesday, the Kremlin said in a statement. There was no elaboration.

Obama said during a recent summit in Moscow that Georgia's territorial integrity must be respected.

...Meanwhile, a senior Russian diplomat voiced concern about what he said were U.S. plans to provide military assistance to Georgia.

"Washington is playing the key role in rearming the Georgian military machine," Grigory Karasin, a deputy foreign minister, said in comments reported Tuesday by the Interfax agency. "It would be in the interests of Georgian democracy ... to refuse to arm this country at all."

...The U.S. is discussing a Georgian request for $16 million in military aid this year, with most of the money intended for training and technical assistance. But Washington reacted coolly after Saakashvili told The Washington Post that Georgia was interested in acquiring heavy weapons for defensive purposes.