Ninety-eight percent of South Ossetia's budget revenues are contributed by Russia, the republic's prime minister, Vadim Brovtsev, has said.

The statement came during Brovtsev's meeting with top officials of the Russian Federal Security Service's Border Guard on Saturday.

The prime minister also stressed the importance of attracting Russian investors to the republic.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and another former Georgian republic, Abkhazia, two weeks after a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008. The war began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.

Since then, Russia has deployed thousands of troops and border guards to the tiny countries, which Georgia considers part of its sovereign territory.

Nicaragua, Venezuela and the tiny island nation of Nauru are the only other countries to have recognized the republics.

On Thursday, South Ossetia celebrated its second anniversary of independence.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently met with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity to discuss the republic's post-war reconstruction.

Medvedev and Kokoity have already met twice this year — during the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9 and at a horse racing event in the Southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 1.

TSKHINVALI, August 29 (RIA Novosti)