Consultations on launching an OSCE monitoring operation on both sides of the Georgian-South Ossetian border landed in a dead-end and will be suspended “over absence of a consensus”, Russian permanent representative to the OSCE Anvar Azimov said in an interview with Itar-Tass.

According to Azimov, a representative of the Greek chairmanship at the OSCE intends to announce on Thursday suspension of consultations at a meeting of the Permanent Council, which were conducted here over the past three-four months. In the near future, Greece intends to bring a discussion of this question to a higher political level.

“We are not to blame for the unlucky outcome of the talks,” Azimov said. “Russia has been crusading for continuation of the presence of the OSCE both in Georgia and South Ossetia. Russia does not object either against work of observers on the two sides of the border.”

“However, a scheme, suggested to us by Western partners and which is based on a premise that nothing has happened allegedly in the region after the act of Georgian aggression and nothing has changed, runs counter to the new international legal and political realities,” he noted.

“It will not be viable, since it will not be accepted, above all, by South Ossetians, while we should like that OSCE presence in the field would work efficiently and would bring practical results.”

In the recent past, Russia twice submitted its proposals and amendments to a plan of deployment (submitted by the Greek chairmanship) of “a single monitoring operation” on the Georgian-South Ossetian border. The essence of these proposals boils down to the following: to open in the region two equal field presences of the OSCE in Tbilisi and Tskhinval and to confirm their status by a decision of the OSCE Permanent Council.

However, Western partners turned down this approach and try to thrust an unacceptable scheme, presupposing the existence of Georgia in its previous pre-war borders. More, they make it clear that otherwise they are not interested either in continuation of work of present observers in areas, bordering South Ossetia, or in preservation of the OSCE presence in Tbilisi.