The Foreign Minister says Russia will not tolerate aggression in the Caucasus and will do everything in its power to stop it. Sergey Lavrov made the statement at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday.
“We guarantee that Russia will continue to work on preventing any possible violence in the Caucasus and is going to cooperate with South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” Russia’s Foreign Minister stated. Lavrov went on to say that Moscow was ready for foreign peacekeepers to play a role in the region and that Russian forces wouldn’t stay in the security zones indefinitely. “Russia is calling for an enlargement of the international presence in security zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Our peacekeepers will not stay there forever. We've already proposed the deployment of an international police force in these areas,” Lavrov said during the meeting. “We understand that Turkey has certain obligations as a member of NATO,” Lavrov continued. “But it never puts them higher than other obligations regulated by international law. We respect that very much.”