Eduard Kokoity, leader of breakaway South Ossetia, said Tskhinvali would raise “territorial claims” beyond boundary lines of South Ossetia and demand “return” of Truso gorge, an area at the slop of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian-Georgian border in north-east of the breakaway region.

“We have very serious territorial issues, which will need to be raised. And we will raise these issues. It concerns the Truso Gorge, which today is a part of the Georgian administrative district of Mtskheta-Mtianeti - this is a native Ossetian land, which by unclear reasons in the Soviet period was transferred under the administrative governance of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Today it is necessary to raise the issue of returning these lands to Ossetia,” Kokoity said in an interview with the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti.

“These unique places, where many prominent representatives of our people were born, now belong to Georgia. In principle, this is a territory of North Ossetia, but since the Leningori district [Akhalgori district, which is adjacent to the Truso gorge] is completely controlled by us, we will raise these issues, because these are our lands,” RIA Novosti quoted Kokoity.