Georgia’s former Prime Minister, Zurab Nogaideli, who now leads opposition Movement for Fair Georgia party, met with leader of breakaway South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, in Tskhinvali on Saturday morning.

He is the second Georgian politician to meet with Kokoity after the August war. Paata Zakareishvili of opposition Republican Party, who is a frequent commentator on conflict issues, was in Tskhinvali on December 16.

Nogaideli’s party reported that the ex-PM discussed with Kokoity issues related with release of detained persons.

A website of the breakaway region’s authorities reported that Kokoity said during the meeting: “In accordance to an agreement reached with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights [Thomas Hammarberg] the South Ossetian side is ready to release one more citizen of Georgia as a gesture of goodwill.”

Meanwhile, according to the South Ossetian reports Russia's official human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, who is also in Tskhinvali, met on December 19 with relatives of those Ossetians who are detained by the Georgian side or missing. He reportedly said at the meeting that the South Ossetian side should demonstrate “a goodwill gesture” and release two Georgian teenagers from the village of Tirdznisi, who were detained by the South Ossetian side on November 4.