RF chose destruction of economy with the use of military force and ethnic cleansing

As it was indicated in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia dated 13 August 2008, representatives of Abkhazia’s separatist authorities profited from the escalated situation in the Tskhinvali region and, in violation of all agreements and treaties signed up to this day and with the assistance of Russian invaders, occupied Upper Abkhazia and conducted a mass cleansing of the region’s ethnic Georgian population.

The Russian Federation’s troops have gone beyond the security zone. Currently there are approximately 9,000 Russian servicemen and their hardware and military equipment stationed in Abkhazia’s adjacent Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region and Poti. Divisions of the occupation army are looting state buildings and population, mining and exploding bridges, transport and economic infrastructure.

Military and civilian vessels have been sunk in the Poti port, warehouses – robbed, docks – exploded. Exact amount of damage is difficult to calculate due to the presence of armed invaders in the region.

Russian ‘peacekeepers’ have not even tried to prevent the movement of Abkhazian separatists thus violating their mandated obligations, which were affirmed already on 10 August 2008 by the UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet at an emergency session of the UN Security Council held in New York.

It needs to be emphasized that such actions of the Abkhaz separatists and Russian ‘peacekeepers’ represent a gross violation of the 1994 Moscow Agreement on Ceasefire and Separation of Forces and all resolutions on the existing situation in Abkhazia, Georgia adopted by the UN Security Council.

Both the Russian Federation and representatives of Abkhazia’s separatist authorities call on the Georgian side for compliance with the agreement, which they have themselves ‘trampled’ without the slightest hesitation.

It is absolutely obvious to the international community that the Russian Federation chose destruction of economy with the use of military force and ethnic cleansing as an instrument for implementing its foreign policy.