South Ossetia's parlt ratifies agreement on border protection

ITAR-TASS
October 21 2009

TSKHINVAL - South Ossetia's parliament has ratified an agreement with Russia on joint efforts to protect the republic' s state border.

"This agreement regulates protection of the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia, while Russia pledges to help us," South Ossetia's Vice Speaker Yuri Dzitstsoity said.

"This document is of great importance and it is difficult to overestimate it," he said. "Amid conditions when Georgia does not recognize South Ossetia's independence and does not want to hear anything about border demarcation and delimitation, we need to equip the border, as there is the possibility of recurrence of aggression."

Dzitstsoity stressed that to prevent any accidents that may occur, South Ossetia has to close the border, create border control checkpoints and set the rules for crossing the border as any other civilized country did.

Meanwhile, Russia's border guards began their service already on May 1, 2009, when the relevant agreement was signed by the presidents of Russia and South Ossetia. The agreement expires in five years and will be automatically prolonged.