RUSSIAN DUMA TO CONSIDER RECOGNITION OF CIS BREAKAWAY REPUBLICS

Center TV
March 5 2008
Russia

Today the Russian Foreign Ministry called upon Baku and Yerevan not
to allow the escalation of violencein Nagornyy Karabakh.

The main thing is to ensure that clashes with the use heavy hardware,
which flared up in the earlyhours of 4 March, would not grow into
large-scale combat activities, the statement of the Russian Foreign
Ministrysays.

At the same time, some observers think it is no accident that the
conflict flared up again now, a few weeks afterKosovo declared its
independence. Vladislav Shikoyan continues on the issue.

[Correspondent] The Kosovo example, as Moscow warned, turned out
to be contagious. Even before the protest actions inSerbia and the
popular celebrations in Kosovo itself faded, passions flared up in
other unrecognized republics. [Passageomitted: situation has escalated
in Nagornyy Karabakh]

Nagornyy Karabakh is too busy for this but the three other
self-proclaimed republics – Abkhazia, South Ossetia andDniester region
– are preparing a statement addressed to Russia, the CIS and the UN
regarding recognition ofindependence. At least in Russia there is an
intention to consider this issue seriously.

[Konstantin Zatulin, captioned as deputy of the Russian State Duma,
speaking at news conference] They have more than enough of their own
grounds, without any precedents, to have independence. Based on our
proposal, the proposal of ourcommittee [Duma committee on the affairs
of the CIS and ties with compatriots], a parliamentary hearing will
be held on the situation regarding the settlement of conflicts on
the territory of the CIS and a statement regarding therecognition
of independence sent to Russia by the Dniester-Moldova Republic,
the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republicof South Ossetia.

Naturally, expressing my personal point of view, I think that,
generally speaking, the issue of recognizing theindependent states
has become ripe long since even without the Kosovo precedent.

[Presenter] Against this background, Georgia has decided to leave
the talks process altogether – Tbilisi is no longersatisfied with the
tripartite commission for the settlement of the Ossetian conflict. In
the unrecognized republics itis thought that this would lead to
the escalation of the conflict. By the way, in a week’s time the
representativesof the parliaments of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Dniester region will come to Moscow for a hearing. It has so far
notbeen decided whether to invite representatives of Georgia and
Moldova.