Russia gives aid to Georgia

MOSCOW – RUSSIA on Tuesday agreed to give $226 million dollars (114 million euros) of aid to two rebel regions of Georgia. Moscow will give 2.36 billion rubles (52 million euros) to Abkhazia and 2.8 billion rubles to South Ossetia. 

Under the agreement signed on Tuesday in Moscow, the Russian money will go directly to the budgets of the two regions, which were at the heart of last summer’s brief war between Russia and Georgia.

Following the war Moscow recognised the two regions as independent, a move that led to broad international condemnation.

On Monday, a top South Ossetian official told the Kommersant newspaper that Russia was delaying badly needed reconstruction work due to a financing freeze and that thousands of homes still needed repairs from the August conflict.