Abkhaz–Georgian conflict
On July 9, 2012, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution at its annual session in Monaco, underlining Georgia’s territorial integrity and referring to breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “occupied territories”. The resolution “urges the Government and the Parliament of the Russian Federation, as well as the de facto authorities of Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia, to allow the European Union Monitoring Mission unimpeded access to the occupied territories.” It also says that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is “concerned about the humanitarian situation of the displaced persons both in Georgia and in the occupied territories of Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia, as well as the denial of the right of return to their places of living.” The Assembly is the parliamentary dimension of the OSCE with 320 lawmakers from the organization’s 56 participating states, including Russia.
Occupied territories of Georgia
The first European country to officially recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the territories under Russian military occupation, became Lithuania. The Lithuanian Seimas adopted a resolution condemning Russian occupation of Georgian territories on 1 June 2010. The resolution said that Russia's use of the local puppet regimes to control the regions constituted a violation of international law. Viktor Zubkov, first deputy Prime Minister of Russia, said that the resolution "distorted all the facts of the August 2008 events".