It was "premature" to remove the Russian checkpoint from the village of Perevi, as construction of alternative road linking nearby South Ossetian village with the rest of region is not yet completed, an official from the breakaway region said.

"Although Perevi is outside the border of former Autonomous District of South Ossetia, removal of [Russian] outpost from there was premature," Boris Chochiev, the breakaway region's envoy for post-conflict issues, said.

Russia, which pulled its small military unit from Perevi on October 18, was controlling in the village a small local road linking village of Karzmani within the administrative borders of former Autonomous District of South Ossetia with rest of the breakaway region. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on October 19, which was released in connection to withdrawal from Perevi, that "a 10-plus km bypass road had been built in difficult mountain terrain to connect the Karzmanskoye gorge to the rest of South Ossetia."

But in remarks posted on a website of the breakaway region's authorities on October 20, Boris Chochiev said that the new road was not yet completed.

"Construction of the road, linking the South Ossetian village of Sinagur with Karzman, should have been completed in 2008. We have been assured that residents of Karzman would have been under the South Ossetian authorities' control, but the road is not yet built. I was categorically against of this move [removal of Russian checkpoint from Perevi]. Those structures are to be blamed, which were in charge of construction of the road. They have misinformed Moscow, as well as us," Chochiev said.