00:11, 14 October 2006

US embassy in Moscow refused visa to head of Abkhazia MFA

The US embassy in Moscow has refused an entry visa to Sergei Shamba, MFA head of the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia. According to Shamba, he was going to New-York in order to attend the discussion in the UN Security Council of the SC resolution on Georgia, reports the "Novosti" news agency.

Vitaliy Churkin, permanent representative of Russia in the UN Security Council, reported earlier that the USA agreed to support the Russian version of the resolution on Georgia.

Churkin said that "the USA is ready to support our draft resolution of the UN Security Council on Georgia and this has caused a sigh of relief among our colleagues."

The draft has maintained unchanged the request to extend the mandate of Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia until April 15, 2007. According to France-Presse, the resolution also requests that Georgia "should bring the situation in the upper part of the Kodor Gorge into conformance with the 1994 Moscow agreements."