The Foreign Ministry of Georgia has said that it considers the visit
of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Tskhinvali, the
capital of South Ossetia, to be illegal, RIA-Novosti reports.
Medvedev's visit came on the fourth anniversary of the war of August 2008
between Russia and Georgia, which ended with Moscow recognizing the
independence of South Ossetia and another Georgian breakaway republic,
Abkhazia.
"Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on August 8 illegally entered
the territory of the sovereign state of Georgia and visited the
occupied Tskhinvali region. This action was carried out in violation
of the laws of Georgia and in particular the law on the occupied
territories [Abkhazia and South Ossetia]," RIA-Novosti quotes the
statement of the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
Following Russia's conferral recognition of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, Tbilisi passed the "Law of Georgia on the Occupied Territories"
in October 2008, officially declaring the "Territory of the Autonomous
Republic of Abkhazia" and "The Tskhinvali Region (the territory of the
former South Ossetian Autonomous Region)" to be "occupied territories."
