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Russia does not intend to hold referendum in South Ossetia — Kremlin

When commenting on the idea of holding such a referendum, Dmitry Peskov said that "if we are serious about it, then we need to finalize this issue legally"

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Moscow is not taking steps to organize a referendum on South Ossetia becoming part of Russia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"No steps have been taken in this case from the Russian side in this regard and are not planned," the Kremlin spokesman said, responding to a question about Moscow's attitude towards such an initiative.

When commenting on the idea of holding such a referendum, Peskov said that "if we are serious about it, then we need to finalize this issue legally." "If we understand correctly, from a legal point of view, the question for the referendum is formulated as the unification of the Republic of South Ossetia and Russia. If we analyze the wording, it suggests that we are talking about the creation of some third state, which of course is impossible. So we need to think a little bit about the wording from a legal point of view," the Kremlin spokesman said.

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