BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament has passed a resolution demanding that Russia reverse its "decision to recognize the so-called independence of the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
The June 14 resolution, which comes nearly 10 years after the Russia-Georgia of August 2008 that resulted in Russia's recognition of the two territories, also "condemns the decision by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, and Nauru to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and calls for this recognition to be withdrawn."
The resolution, which was backed by the vast majority in the European Parliament, also calls on Russia to "cease its occupation" of the two breakaway regions and "fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia, as well as the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders, and that it stop the de facto integration of both regions into the Russian administration."
It also urges Moscow to stop installing barbed wire fences and other artificial barriers at the administrative boundary line between Georgia and the two regions in order to put an end "to the encroachment into territory controlled by the Georgian government."