Occupied territories of Georgia
On 3 March 2009, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers met Giorgi Baramidze, the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Georgia. The president expressed his support for Georgia's domestic reforms and foreign policy. He also asked Baramidze what Russia was doing in those parts of Georgia that it had occupied.
Occupied territories of Georgia
The United States Department of State published The Human Rights Report in 2011 where it is underlined that "de facto" authorities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are supported by several thousand occupying Russian troops since 2008. The "de facto" Abkhaz authorities restricted the rights of ethnic Georgians to participate in the political process and to exercise basic rights. Since 2008 the "de facto" authorities of South Ossetia have refused to permit ethnic Georgians expelled during and after the 2008 war to return to South Ossetia unless they renounced their Georgian citizenship and accepted a Russian passport. No international party was able to monitor the extent of the Russian military presence. Media in the occupied territories was tightly restricted by the "de facto" authorities and Russian occupying forces.