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Putin pledges firm support for South Ossetia, Abkhazia
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-27 08:15

MOSCOW: Russia will continue to support Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and will not allow a repeat of last August's hostilities, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"Russia intends to continue giving total political and economic support both to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia will not permit any reprisal attempts or any repeat of military ventures in this region," Putin said after meeting with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity.

The Russian premier said Moscow will consider offering more financial assistance to South Ossetia for its reconstruction in the wake of a brief war last year.

Russia never encouraged other countries to recognize the independence of the separatist republics and the fact that only Nicaragua has followed suit poses no threat to them, Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Tbilisi's rule during a war in the 1990s that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war last August, when Georgia attacked South Ossetia to retake the renegade region that borders Russia. In response, Moscow sent in troops to drive Georgian forces out of the region.

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Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on Aug. 26, 2008, two weeks after the conflict ended.

After Wednesday's talks between Putin and Kokoity, the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom started to deliver natural gas to South Ossetia through a newly-built pipeline connecting Russia's North Ossetian village of Dzaurikau to Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia.

Russian gas supplies to South Ossetia have so far been pumped through the Agara-Tskhinvali branch of the Georgian Tbilisi-Kutaisi system, which South Ossetia will cease to use when the Dzuarikau-Tskhinvali pipeline goes to full capacity.