"I do not know where you obtain information of this kind," he told journalists following talks with his Polish counterpart. "South Ossetia is not going to join anything."
Earlier Thursday, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said the disputed Georgian region planned to join the Russian republic of North Ossetia and become part of Russia, a statement he later rowed back from.
"I have probably been misunderstood." Kokoity told Russian media. "We are not going to relinquish our independence, which we won at the cost of colossal sacrifices, and South Ossetia is not going to become part of Russia."
At a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi earlier in the day, the South Ossetian leader said: "We will join Russia and will not become a separate independent Ossetia."
"I would be very glad if we joined Russia," he added, saying that the Ossetians joined the Russia Empire in 1774: "We will keep the oath of our ancestors."
Kokoity said restoring historical justice was of paramount importance. "It is more a humanitarian rather than a political problem," the president said, adding that unification with North Ossetia would be the only way Ossetians could survive as an ethnic group.
Abkhaz President Sergei Bagpash told the same forum that Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian republic, was not going to try to obtain associated territory status with Russia but would seek to join the alliance of ex-Soviet states, the CIS, and the Russia-Belarus Union State.
"I think that after signing the agreement [on cooperation with Russia] we will apply to join the [Russia-Belarus] Union State. If the CIS expands, we are also ready to take part there and in the Collective Security Treaty Organization," he said.
Russia recognized the independence of the Georgian breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on August 26, two weeks after it expelled Georgian troops from South Ossetia following Tbilisi's August 8 offensive against the republic.
