On March 21, Russian State Duma adopted a statement calling on the President and government to address recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence.

The Duma members offer "to speed up the process of the republics' sovereignty up to recognition of their independence in compliance with the expression of popular will."

"Russia should take action to protect its citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in case of Georgia's violence or accession to NATO," the document says.

The State Duma also proposes to strengthen peacekeeping potential in the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zones.

South Ossetia's representative to Russia, Dmitry Medoyev said this decision inspires hope and testifies the start of recognition process.

For his part, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried said recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia's independence "would be a blunder"

"The U.S. supports territorial integrity of Georgia and stands for a peaceful resolution of the conflicts," he said, Russkaya Liniya reports.