BAKU, May 31 (RIA Novosti) - The rotation of Russian peacekeepers in the zone of Georgia's long-running conflict with the breakaway South Ossetia region will not be cancelled, the defense minister said Wednesday.
Controversy erupted over the six-monthly rotation of Russian peacekeepers in the northern Georgian region when Russia said Georgian special forces and police units had infiltrated the conflict zone on May 27 in an attempt to interfere with the movement of Russian peacekeepers.
"Rotation of peacekeepers is held once in six months and we have no plans to cancel it," said Sergei Ivanov, who is also Russia's deputy prime minister. "It has been and will be held through the Roksky tunnel."
Georgia has warned Russia on numerous occasions against rotating its troops through a checkpoint that is not under Georgian control and where it cannot check the peacekeepers' visas. Previously, Russian peacekeepers passed through the Nizhny Zaramag checkpoint at the Roksky tunnel on the border between unrecognized South Ossetia and the Russian region of North Ossetia.
"Our [Russian] peacekeepers in South Ossetia act within the framework of the Joint Control Commission and the current agreements say nothing about visas for peacekeepers," Ivanov said.
The Georgian foreign ministry said last week that "the Russian side must provide Georgia with a list of rotated peacekeepers who would receive Georgian visas for the rotation period."
The Georgian Foreign Ministry claimed Russia had violated procedures for rotating its peacekeeping contingent, which has been stationed in South Ossetia since an end to fighting in the early 1990s after it tried to secede from Georgia.
The ministry said that the rotation had not been coordinated with the Georgian co-chairman of the JCC - the body comprising Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia that is attempting to find a solution to the conflict - and that Russia was stalling on talks over visas for its peacekeepers.
