On 8 August 2012, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev illegally entered the sovereign Georgian territory to visit occupied Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia. This act was done in violation of international legal norms and principles, as well as the Georgian legislation and particularly the Law on the Occupied Territories.

The context and tone of Russia's Prime Minister's visit aims at backing up the argument of the so-called South Ossetia's illusory "independence" from Georgia. Back on August 26, 2008 Kremlin took a decision to recognize two Georgian provinces - Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia - in a last-ditch effort to create political cover to the blatant military aggression. Now Russia is finding herself virtually isolated in this decision. The efforts to buy international support through intimidation and incentives have not yielded significant results. So, the visits like Mr. Medvedev's trip to Tskhinvli are used for internal and limited external face-saving purposes.

Kremlin must be aware that the international position on Georgia's territorial integrity is unshaken, while Georgia develops and looks into the future, where the torn social fabric of the divided communities will heal and in which there is no place for the occupying force.

Tbilisi, 9 August 2012