MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Communist Party will hold protests outside the U.S. embassy in Moscow on Friday to mark Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said on Monday.
"We will hold protests in front of the U.S. embassy on [August] 7 in connection with the anniversary of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, or more precisely [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili and his mercenaries' traitorous attack on a brotherly republic," Zyuganov said during a press conference in Moscow.
The head of the Communist Party's Moscow department, Vladimir Ulas, said the U.S. embassy was chosen for the protests because the United States had supported Georgia in the conflict.
"The American government unquestioningly stood behind Saakashvili, they armed him, they financed him, and they gave his regime political cover," Ulas said.
Last August, Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another former Georgian republic, Abkhazia, after Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war last August. Most residents of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have held Russian citizenship for several years.
South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity on Friday demanded Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili be tried as a war criminal for giving the order to attack Tskhinval.
Kokoity said South Ossetia had launched a criminal case against Saakashvili and others who had "organized the aggression" against the republic's citizens, adding that this is considered an international crime and should be punished.
