Moscow will “respect” and “uphold” the sovereignty of South Ossetia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on October 16 at a panel discussion on the sideline of the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi.

Responding to the question on the possibility of unification of South Ossetia and North Ossetia (a republic in the North Caucasus) within the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov noted that “in the Soviet Union, as you are aware, this was the case – there was a united Ossetia and then, it was divided into two by an arbitrary decision.” “Back then many things were transferred from one republic to another, including Crimea, in disregard of the Soviet Constitution.”

The Russian Foreign Minister touched upon the Russo-Georgian War as well, saying that the Russian peacekeepers and the Russian army “helped stop the former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili from resolving the territorial problem [of South Ossetia], as he used to call it, contrary to the OSCE decisions, despite the fact that there were peacekeepers, Russian and Ossetian, and also Georgian, who were withdrawn few hours before the start of this agression.”

“We will respect in every way and assist in upholding the sovereignty of South Ossetia through our closest allied relations,” the Foreign Minister concluded.