Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claiming Russia, through the separatist authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, violated a convention meant to eliminate racism, the Hague-based court said on August 12.

It said in a press release that Georgia claims Russia violated its obligations under the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) “during three distinct phases of its interventions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia” in the period from 1990 to August 2008.

“Russian Federation, through its State organs, State agents, and other persons and entities exercising governmental authority, and through the South Ossetian and Abkhaz separatist forces and other agents acting on the instructions of, and under the direction and control of the Russian Federation, is responsible for serious violations of its fundamental obligations under [the] CERD, including Articles 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6,” Georgia claims in its lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Russia is further stepping up its efforts to push internationally its allegations against Georgia that the latter’s actions undertaken in recent days in South Ossetia amounted to “genocide” of the Ossetian people. Russia has claimed that about 2,000 Ossetians have been killed after, as it says, Georgia launched a military assault on the breakaway region.

The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO) did not rule out taking legal actions against President Saakashvili.

“The evidence collected could be used both for appealing to international courts and for considering crimes against Russian citizens living in South Ossetia by Russian judicial bodies," Interfax news agency reported quoting GPO spokeswoman Marina Gridneva.

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, repeated genocide charges against Georgia on August 13 and said: “Hundreds of our citizens [from South Ossetia] are preparing complaints to be filed to the international courts.”