The plan of Italian journalist Chiesa might not come true

On September 19, Italian journalist, a politician and ex-member of the European Parliament - Giulietto Chiesa together with the Italian delegation, visited Georgia's breakaway territory - Tskhinvali region. Since 1990 it has been Chiesa's seventh visit in this region.

The aim of his visit was to plan the organization of the speech of Tskhinvali’s de facto President in Brussels.

“It will be difficult to implement this in the nearest months,” said former MEP. ” It will be a scandalous, fundamental event … We will gather a group of MEPs that will invite the president or foreign minister [of Tskhinvali Region]. I will be very glad if it comes out well”, Chiessa stated.

In response to this statement, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia announced that non-official persons affiliated with Russia, cannot use any international platform to promote independence of Tskhinvali region.

“We are sure that private individuals affiliated with Russia will not be able to use the platform of international organizations for their narrow political goals and will not be able to spread a propaganda of occupational regimes in such formats,” said Ministry to the online news agency ipn.ge

Chiesa spent a big part of his carrier in Russia and cooperated with local TV companies and newspapers. Here are a few facts from his professional life:

• In 1980 - Giulietto Chiesa acted as a Moscow correspondent of the Italian communist newspaper L’Unita;

• In 1991 - he was again appointed as a Moscow correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Stampa and remained in Russia until the end of 2000;

• He has written several books, ranging from history to news and reportages about the Soviet Union and Russia;

• For a few years, he collaborated with Limes, an Italian journal of geopolitics and with other Russian journals, such as Literaturnaja Gazeta, Delovoi Vtornik, Moskovskie Novosti, Itogi;

• He has been a political commentator for Russia Today and has been collaborating regularly with Russian TV channels, such are Pervij Kanal, Rossia 1, Rossia 24, NTV, Ren TV, Zvezda, and Culture;

• In 2008, regarding the Russia-Georgian war, he stated that the information of European news agencies that Russia wanted to conquer Georgia, was ‘shamefully false.’

It looks that former Russia Today commentator Chiesa is trying to promote the Russian policy regarding the recognition of breakaway territories of Georgia, but without any success so far.

On September 20, asked about the plans of Chiesa the US Ambassador Ian Kelly responded: “It’s very simple - neither the US nor any member of the EU recognizes the independence of South Ossetia. In fact, you can count on one hand how many countries recognize the independence of South Ossetia and none of them are in the EU or near Europe,” Ambassador Kelly stated.

The list of the countries, which recognize the independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions, includes: Russia from August 26, 2008; Nicaragua from September 5, 2008; Venezuela from September 10, 2009; and Nauru from December 16, 2009.