Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered his officials to seal an agreement which will, in effect, incorporate the armed forces of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region into the Russian military’s command structure.
Georgia condemned the move, which is likely to spark accusations from its Western allies that the Kremlin is absorbing the breakaway region into Russia by stealth, even though under international law it is part of Georgia’s sovereign territory.
Moscow has de facto controlled South Ossetia, a sliver of mainly mountainous land in the northeast of Georgia, for years.
But it has, on paper at least, treated South Ossetia as a …read more
Source: Voice of America
