In his standoff with Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, Anatoli Bibilov wants to draw the weapon of the referendum. The president of theSouth Ossetiaa pro-Russian territory in the Caucasus that seceded from Georgiaconsidered Wednesday to organize a popular consultation to be attached to Russia.
“Of course, we have to ask the people for their opinion and make sure that the people express themselves on the possibility of joining the Russian Federation,” declared Anatoly Bibilov, live on a Russian television channel. “It’s not very difficult to do without dragging. As they say, it’s a technical question,” he continued, assuring that joining the Russia was an “age-old dream” of the Ossetian people.
A vote not before the presidential election of April 10
“All legal procedures will be completed following the presidential election”, scheduled for this territory on April 10, said a spokeswoman for the head of South Ossetia, Dina Gassieva.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia are two regions of Caucasus having seceded from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Their independence was recognized in August 2008 by Russia, following a lightning war between Tbilisi and Moscow. Since this conflict, Russian forces have been stationed there.
Abkhazia valid without following the same path
For his part, the president of the “parliament” of Abkhazia, Valeri Kvartchia, affirmed on Wednesday evening that the question of the annexation of this territory to Russia did not arise because the Abkhazian “constitution” declares it “clearly” as an “independent state”. He further asserted that South Ossetia’s decision to organize “a possible referendum was a “sovereign right”, assuring that it was a question of uniting the Ossetian people, part of which lives within the borders of Russia.
This announcement from South Ossetia comes as the Russian army has been carrying out a war in ukraine, officially to help two other pro-Russian separatist territories, those of Lugansk and Donetsk. Last week, Anatoly Bibilov announced that he had sent soldiers from South Ossetia to Ukraine to “help protect Russia”.
On Sunday, the leader of the Lugansk separatists, Leonid Passetchnik, told him that a referendum would take place “in the near future” for this region to join Russia. The leader of the Donetsk separatists, Denis Pushilin, also regularly comes out in favor of a merger with Moscow.
