On 5 November 2004, a meeting was held in Sochi with Russian mediation between the Prime-Minister of Georgia Zurab Zhvania and the President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity. As an outcome of the meeting, a statement was signed which, in particular, anchored a cease-fire and contained an obligation to withdraw all illegal armed formations from the conflict zone.
Eduard Kokoity agreed with the three-stage conflict resolution plan initiated by Zurab Zhvania and presented by the Georgian leadership in the autumn of 2004 at the 59 UN GA session, thus demonstrating openness to a negotiated settlement of the problem, including the status issues. However, after Zurab Zhvania was killed in mysterious circumstances early in 2005, Mikheil N. Saakashvili abandoned the three-stage plan that opened the road to a Georgia-South Ossetia Agreement.
On 12 December 2005, the President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity made another attempt to reach a compromise. He presented to Mikheil N. Saakashvili and the OSCE a proposal that they start, jointly with the Georgian side within the framework of the MCC, working out a single program of actions to resolve the conflict. Georgia's Prime-Minister Zurab Nogaideli positively responded to this initiative, and a relevant accord was reflected in MCC documents signed by Georgy Khaindrava, State Minister for Conflict Resolution. This approach was supported by the OSCE, whose representatives also favored the signing of a document on the non-use of force by Tbilisi and Tskhinval.
However, the Georgian side again radically changed its position. Georgy Khaindrava was dismissed while the new State Minister for Conflict Resolution Merab Antadze refused to continue working on a joint program at the MCC meeting held in Moscow on 17-18 August 2006, stating that a settlement should be based on the unilateral approaches offered by the Georgian leadership. Thus, the negotiation process was deadlocked by the Georgian side which subsequently withdrew totally from the work in the MCC.
On 12 November 2006, South Ossetia held another independence referendum and elections of the Republic's president (Eduard Kokoity was reelected by an overwhelming majority of votes). At the same time, in some Georgian villages of South Ossetia Tbilisi organized provocative "alternative elections" and a "referendum", on the basis of which a puppet authority headed by Dmitry Sanakoev were formed.
Starting from the end of June 2007, Georgia intensified its efforts to build up its presence in the conflict zone and around it.
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