Ping!
...(b) Under the relevant Yugoslav and Soviet laws, KiM has no right to secede from Serbia (or from Yugoslavia before that), but the USSR’s autonomous republics (Abkhazia) and oblasts (South Ossetia) had the right to opt out of the Union Republics’ secession, in this case, the Georgian SSR, under the 1990 law on secession from the USSR .
Hence, Abkhazia and South Ossetia clearly were part of the GeSSR but never part of independent Georgia. By contrast, KiM unquestionably has been part of Serbia since before Yugoslavia was created. President Medvedev, Minister Lavrov, and Ambassador Churkin have been quite clear on these points.
They have correctly insisted that these “frozen” areas of the former USSR are far more deserving of independence than KiM is.
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