MOSCOW WILL APPOINT SOME RUSSIANS AS MILITARY OBSERVERS

WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 29, 2008 Friday

Vladimir Voronkov, Assistant Permanent Representative of the Russian
Federation to the OSCE: About 100 OSCE military observers are to be
deployed in the security zone established around South Ossetia these
days. Twenty military observers were already dispatched to Georgia,
to Tbilisi to set up the base for 80 more colleagues there.

All these speculations that OSCE military observers will number 200,
300 and more men are just that – speculations that do not have anything
to do with the actual state of affairs. The Permanent Council decision
is plain on the subject. Up to 100 new observers may be dispatched
to the territories around South Ossetia, and no more.

OSCE military observers are not supposed to wield firearms. The group
sent to Georgia includes Finns, Englishmen, Norwegians, Poles, and
representatives of other European states. There will be Americans
there as well, some Canadians, and a representative of Kazakhstan.

Moscow suggested three Russian observers in the team of 100 I’ve
already mentioned. We will do everything in our powers to have their
assignment authorized by the OSCE. We also know that other members of
the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization apart from Kazakhstan
want their representatives in the security zone. Yerevan (Armenia)
is one.