Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took a trip to Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia to show his support for Separatists there and joined in the ninth anniversary of a deadly five-day war between Moscow and Tbilisi which took place in South Ossetia.
President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Abkhazia’s Black Sea resort Pitsunda was frowned at by the Georgian government. The Georgian government maintains that Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been illegally integrated into Russia’s military, political, economic and social system and so Russia has no claim over the territories.
The foreign ministry said Putin’s trip to Abkhazia was a gesture meant only “for legitimization of forceful change of borders of the sovereign state (Georgia) through military aggression, ethnic cleansing and occupation.”
NATO also said that Putin’s visit was “detrimental to international efforts to find a peaceful and negotiated settlement” of the war the two countries fought in 2008.
