Georgia sign act-law - with SU(with SSSR-with Georgia as member state) to give S.Ossetia and Abkazia a free choice on referendum-will they stay with Georgia or become independent! Georgia latter change their position(unlawfull) and never give those rebublics referendum.Knowing the future result Georgia never give them right for referendum! This fact is true and known in the west but you will not find any story in their"free" press about that. First war start(18 y. ago) for the same reason...We all know what Shaakashvili (pure genocide) do last year.West(only them) breack 1.chapter of UN-international law by recognize Kosovo..Rachak-fake- masacre was done by Usa.They put civil clotches on death terrorist to acuse Serbia of wrong doing....78 days follow with their bombs.Why?Serbia did not want to become NATO member-main reason!Russia did not have a choice-to save those people from genocide -recognize is a must!With Russia recognize- those 2 new states are safe as Russia herself! Mr .Chaves done right thing to do the same-more will follow fro sure.Once more well done mr.Chavez....

This is another victory for you. Georgian people wants to be friend of Russia. Take back Georgia and send Shaakashvili to the United States. The world is quickly changing, but just a few people has realized that.

Every nation has its own agenda when it comes to recognising new breakaway states. Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have greater rights to independence based on history and politics then Kosovo ever had. Yet I ask why is it right for kosovo to be independent and the other two not? Well Georgia is friends with the USA while Serbia was not. Then you have countries with high ethnic population that had for even longer been trying to split away such as the Basque and thats why even countries allied to the USA still think of their own situation and had refused to recognise Kosovo as this will give more power to their own minorities to split away. Russia seemed to have been one of few that recognised the problem creation of new states will cause.Even when the USA bypassed the UN to recognise Kosovo, Moscow did not do the same with the two republics. After what Saakashvili did, was there anything else Moscow could do but recognise the two republics.I do not think so. Remember that Russia is an multi ethnic country too. Then you have most others that simple do not want to hurt their relations with the USA. It seems that south america is drifting towards Russia and I expect other countries that drop the fear of the USA would do what they think is right when it comes to the newly created nations.

Zak, your comment is very much on target. It has been so conveniently "forgotten" by the "free" and largely ignorant press in the West that Abkhazia and South Ossetia had legal reasons to be free. UN Charter supporting the sovereignity and territorial integrity of its member nations does NOT absolve countries that have joined UN with the unresolved LEGAL issues concerning their borders. This is in stark difference with Kosovo, where no such legal claim ever existed. The mere fact that a part of any country happens to have a majority of different ethnic make-up, is not and cannot be a justification for demanding independence. And you very correctly describe the staged events, such as Rachak "massacre". People who know of the event, know also that subsequent commissions actually denied that it was a massacre, since the dead bodies were found on that spot, but it was clear from the site that they were not killed there. Such staged events, from Bosnia to Kosovo, simply provided Westen press with the loudspeaker to repeat, ad nauseum, the fraudulent information. And as Goebels famously stated, "...a lie told thousand times becomes truth..". If UN members will recognize states whenever a separatist movemet decides to challenge state authorites, we would have a world-wide anarchy. However, Halliburton's decision to build a massive military base in Kosovo was really the reason for recognizing the country. This is actually the first NATO state, as NATO has the right to overrule Kosovo government. And to this end EULEX was brought in to set up judiciary, police and administrative controls. So much for independence of Kosovo. However, Abkhazia and South Ossetia had legal rights to independence, as you correctly state. Kosovo, on the other hand is a clean-cut violation of UN Charter and other international treaties.

Good job!

Yes, I agree more will likely follow Venezuela's lead. Probably it will be those countries who do not have a lot of business with USA, because we have been pressuring countries to keep from recognizing the two provinces as independent states. If there is a country that is not likely to be seriously hurt by any cut-off of business from US, they may be the next to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Venezuela is in no danger of US cutting off business, because we need their oil. Our government already hates Chavez, so nothing will change.