Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Aug 14, 2008 - MOSCOW - Russia’s foreign minister says the question of Georgia’s territorial integrity is a dead issue, a sign that Moscow could absorb two separatist regions in the wake of recent fighting.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the statement Thursday simultaneously with the announcement that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting in the Kremlin with the separatist regions’ leaders.

Lavrov tells reporters, “One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity.” That’s because he believes it’s impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia that they can be forced to be a part of Georgia