© EPA/JUSTIN LANE

UN, March 28. /Offset. TASS Oleg Zelenin/. Ukraine raised Tuesday at a closed meeting of the UN Security Council the topic of the upcoming presidential elections and referendum in South Ossetia. This was reported to journalists by the acting permanent representative of Russia to the UN, Peter Ilichev. Commenting on the actions of the Kiev authorities, acting at the behest of Georgia, the diplomat stressed that the question of state sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia “cannot be a subject of discussions”.

“The situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia is not a conflict, so it is unlikely that the Council should divert your attention to it. You need to recognize developed over the last 8 years realities. Question on the state sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose independence Russia recognized, cannot become the subject of discussion,” said Ilyichev .

According to him, “the situation on the Abkhaz-Georgian and hoosein-Georgian border is generally calm and stable”, in the republics, “along with issues of security, increase defense first put forward the issues of socio-economic development, raising the standard of living of their citizens.”

Ilichev said that to resolve differences between Georgia on the one hand and Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the other, there are the Geneva discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia, which worked well.

According to him, the idea of discussing the upcoming elections and referendum. “compounding the obvious detriment of the Geneva discussions”, which is applied to the annual review in the General Assembly “politicized draft resolution” on refugees in the region.

“If Georgia and its backers will pull in new York to discuss security without the participation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Geneva talks may even be closed,” warned the acting permanent representative of the Russian Federation.

April 9, in South Ossetia held presidential elections and a referendum on the issue of its renaming to the State of Alania. The current name is the Republic of South Ossetia would be tantamount to a new, if it approves the population. The population of South Ossetia at the beginning of 2017 amounted to about 55 thousand people. The number of voters is estimated at 39 million people.

After a closed security Council meeting before journalists were made by the British diplomat Matthew Rycroft, who said that the upcoming vote in South Ossetia, as well as held on 12 March parliamentary elections in Abkhazia “does not contribute to the settlement of conflicts” in the region.

Raycroft, who chaired the meeting, said that the majority of participants expressed support for “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia”.