Russia, South Ossetia set out borders

MOSCOW

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his South Ossetian counterpart David Sanakoev have signed a treaty establishing international borders between Russia and the republic.

Lavrov hailed the agreement at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday, which came just over eight years after South Ossetia, a breakaway republic from Georgia, first received diplomatic recognition as an independent country from Russia following a five-day war with Georgia. 

Describing the treaty as "the cornerstone of significance ... in the system of international relations of any neighboring countries," Lavrov said he hoped the establishment of the treaty would "dispel recent insinuations spread by the Georgian side about the alleged impending annexation, absorption, or attachment of South Ossetia."

Asked whether the "removal" of the border between Russia and South Ossetia's neighboring country Abkhazia meant the latter had a closer relationship with Russia, Lavrov stated that the removal of the border was a "figurative expression." 

He said: "When people talk about the abolition of frontiers, the removal of borders, it is a figurative expression, which means trying to ensure that the mode of crossing the state border between the two friendly countries is as comfortable as possible for citizens, for economic activities and for humanitarian contacts."

South Ossetia received Russian recognition as an independent country on Aug. 26, 2008, when Moscow also recognized the neighboring breakaway Republic of Abkhazia.

Apart from Russia, only three other countries, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Nauru, recognize the sovereignty of the two breakaway republics.