In South Ossetia, against the backdrop of protests in Georgia, they monitor the situation at the border

In South Ossetia, protests in Georgia are being monitored, since the bill that caused them is used, among other things, as a pretext for revenge against the republic, declared “Interfax” Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President for Post-Conflict Settlement Egor Kochiev.

“We understand that the draft law that caused these events is being used as a pretext for accusing the Georgian authorities of being pro-Russian, destabilizing the situation and calling for revenge on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. We do not entertain illusions that Georgia will finally recognize the fact of aggression against South Ossetia, repent, and start building good-neighborly relations with us, but at the same time we hope that common sense will prevail there,” he said.

According to Kochiev, the situation is being monitored along the entire length of the border between South Ossetia and Georgia, and the competent authorities are in touch with the EU monitoring mission as part of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism.

On March 7, protests broke out in Tbilisi after the Georgian parliament adopted the bill on foreign agents in the first reading. The actions continued on March 8 and 9, during the protests the police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse. On March 10 the project was withdrawn, and with it the document of the law “On the registration of foreign agents” – the “American” version, which refers to the assignment of this status not only to the media and organizations, but also to individuals. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country, a total of 133 protesters were detained, who were later released.

The State Department did not rule out the imposition of sanctions against Georgia if the law was adopted and stated that the project on foreign agents was “inspired by the Kremlin”, while a similar law is in force in the States themselves. And the head of the EU Foreign Service, Josep Borrell, noted that the initiative contradicts Georgia’s desire to join the European Union.

The Russian authorities recalled that a similar law (FARA) has been in force in the United States since 1938. The Kremlin noted that one of the versions of the Georgian bill was similar to the American one, and several times emphasizedthat Moscow has nothing to do with this initiative.