Tskhinval calls U.S. State Department's objection to referendum on joining Russia inappropriate
TSKHINVAL. May 31 (Interfax) - South Ossetia's Foreign Ministry said that that the right of republican citizens to independently determine the future of their country definitely does not need U.S. State Department's approval.
"In this regard, we consider it necessary again to make insistent recommendations to the United States to study South Ossetia's modern history, the main principles of international law and the current realities in the Southern Caucasus," the republic's Foreign Ministry said in a commentary obtained by Interfax on Tuesday.
The Foreign Ministry focuses on the U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson's statements regarding the holding of a referendum on joining Russia in South Ossetia.
"The U.S. also should realize that South Ossetia's aspiration to enter into the Russian Federation is far from being in the least caused by the ideas to ensure security and keep the stability in the region on a long-term basis, specifically at the backdrop of Georgia's revanchist aspirations backed by the U.S. in political and military areas," the Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry said that not only the words about the support to Georgia's territorial integrity that lost their pressing nature 24 years ago, "but also absolutely inappropriate objections to the holding of such a referendum in South Ossetia" had been voiced again.
"This time, not an attempt at a rude interference into the sovereign affairs of another state typical for the U.S., but the very fact of the negative attitude to the top type of a direct, democratic expression of will by people, who decide on their future at a referendum, is surprising. And this attitude is voiced not somewhere, but exactly in the U.S., who consider themselves the main bulwark of democracy," the commentary said.
U.S. Department of State Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner told a briefing last week, that the U.S. administration would not consider as legitimate a referendum in South Ossetia on republic's joining Russia, if it takes place.