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Georgian Crisis

South Ossetia Denies Plans to Join Russia

Eduard Kokoity, the self-proclaimed president of South Ossetia, has denied reports that the region wants to join the Russian Federation. He says he was misunderstood.

The denial came swiftly. Shortly after several news agencies had reported that the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia was aiming to join the Russian Federation, South Ossetia's self-proclaimed president told Russian news agency Interfax: "It seems that I was misunderstood. We are not going to say no to our independence, which has been achieved at the expense of many lives; South Ossetia has no plans to join Russia.”

Earlier, Interfax had quoted Kokoity as saying: "Of course we will become part of Russia. We're not intending to set up some independent Ossetia." Interfax said Kokoity had been speaking at a meeting of foreign policy experts in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also denied South Ossetia had plans to join the Russian Federation.

Russia in August recognized the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia in a move that drew international condemnation.

In early August Russia launched an attack that penetrated deep into Georgia to crush a military attempt by Tbilisi to retake control of South Ossetia. The province, like Abkhazia, broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s and aligned itself with Russia.

Separately, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Germany would contribute to the planned European Union observer mission to Georgia.

She said the dispatch of German troops to participate in the 200-member unarmed EU mission had yet to be passed by parliament, but added that she was confident Germany "will not shirk" its responsibility to take part.

The European Union is setting up the mission to monitor the withdrawal of Russian troops in Georgia under an agreement hammered out between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on Monday.

Separately, the Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, urged NATO to cancel a planned trip by its ambassadors to Georgia scheduled for Sept. 15 and 16.

"I stated very clearly that this visit is totally inappropriate and demanded that the alliance reconsider and postpones it for obvious reasons," Rogozin told reporters.

The visit by such a high-level delegation would be interpreted as "comprehensive political and military support" for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Rogozin said.

The visit, which is to be led by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, was scheduled a long time ago and is aimed at assessing political reforms in Georgia.

NATO has promised Georgia, which Russia's sees as its sphere of influence, that it will one day be admitted to the alliance. But opposition from Germany and France has prevented it setting any timeframe.

cro -- with wire reports