Georgia, Russia: South Ossetia and Abkhazia's Options

Eduard Kokoity, president of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia, said Sept. 11 that the republic intends to join with North Ossetia, a Russian republic, and thus become part of the Russian Federation. Russia rebuked this remark immediately. Sergei Bagapsh, president of Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia, said that Abkhazia would remain independent and seek association with Russia through the Commonwealth of Independent States and possibly the Union State of Russia and Belarus. These remarks reflect the Kremlin's desire to keep portraying its actions in Georgia as humanitarian in nature and not an attempt to reclaim former Soviet territory.