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Russian PM Putin arrives in region next to conflict

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-09 23:58

MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Saturday to discuss the influx of refugees from the conflict in the adjacent Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia, news agencies said.

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Interfax news agency said Putin flew from Beijing, where he attended the opening of the Olympic Games, to North Ossetia in Russia, to where tens of thousands of refuges are fleeing from across the border after two days of fighting between Georgian troops, separatists and Russian forces.

He had been due to visit Siberia.

Residents of the Russian region of North Ossetia share a common language and culture with residents of South Ossetia -- which broke away from Georgian control in the 1990s.