MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Tbilisi's foreign patrons should give up their futile attempts at the reintegration of South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia, Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Alexander Bikantov told a news briefing on Thursday reacting to the recent statement by a number of Western countries following a UN Security Council session devoted to the events of August 2008.
"It is to be hoped that common sense will prevail and Tbilisi and our Georgian partners will begin to build relations with their neighbors with due regard for the balance of interests. This fully applies to Tbilisi's foreign patrons. They should have long dropped the futile attempts at the reintegration of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with Georgia," he said.
He stressed that instead of rubber-stamping far-fetched and utterly unrealistic clich·s, like those found in the joint statement, the Western countries "should encourage Tbilisi to establish and maintain a dialogue of equality and mutual respect with Sukhum and Tskhinval."
On Wednesday, a number of UN Security Council members (Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, Britain and the United States) issued a joint statement concerning the events of August 2008 in South Ossetia. Russia's actions were described as illegal and Moscow was charged with human rights violations. The statement's signatories urged Russia to pull out its military and security forces and cancel the recognition of Abkhazia's and South Ossetia's independence. The statement was read out by Estonia's deputy ambassador to the UN Andre Lipand.
Earlier, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said that the Western countries' attempts to raise the issue of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the UN Security Council were evidence of the refusal to recognize the objective reality.