MOSCOW, March 30 (RIA Novosti) - The head of PACE
invited representatives from Abkhazia and South Ossetia on
Monday to attend the assembly's next session in Strasbourg
aimed at restoring dialogue between Russia and Georgia.
The Ad hoc Committee of the Bureau of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held a meeting in
Valencia, Spain, to discuss the current state in Russia and
Georgia relations.
Following the meeting PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig
welcomed the readiness by the Russian and Georgian delegations
to continue dialogue and invited representatives of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia to attend the next session in Strasbourg in
late April.
"We therefore decided to involve representatives of the
Abkhaz and South Ossetian communities in our next meeting,
which will take place in Strasbourg on the occasion of the
spring Session from 27 to 30 April," PACE quoted de Puig as
saying in a statement.
Russia recognized the former Georgian republics of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on August 26, 2008,
two weeks after the end of a five-day war with Georgia. The
conflict began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in a
bid to bring it back under central control.
Nicaragua has so far been the only other country to follow
Russia in recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia split from Georgia in the early
1990s, and most people in both republics have also held Russian
citizenship for a number of years.
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