Vyacheslav Volodin: We hope to cooperate with Georgia during the consideration of the South Ossetian appeal regarding genocide

We hope to cooperate with Georgia during the consideration of the South Ossetian appeal regarding the recognition of the Ossetian genocide, - said Vyacheslav Volodin, a member of the Russian State Duma.

"We hope that Georgia, for its part, will provide assistance and communicate with us. The allegations are quite serious. They should be based on arguments and objective facts; we will study all this," Volodin told Russian journalists.

He said that after the task force studies the issue and drafts a proposal, the State Duma will return to the matter and make a decision.

Volodin said that ”it is important for the Russian lawmakers that the decision be objective and everyone realize that if the people of South Ossetia suffered genocide, it would be right to acknowledge it and support our colleagues in South Ossetia."

According to him, much depends on what kind of arguments and materials will be presented and of course whether or not Georgia will cooperate.

In addition, according to Ivan Melnikov, Vice-Speaker of the Russian State Duma, as a result of the appeal of the de facto parliament of so-called South Ossetia, a working group was set up in Duma "to study the issue of genocide by Georgia against Ossetians living in South Ossetia in 1920".