MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) - Russia slammed a January 23 report by U.S.-based nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) on rights violations in the course of the August conflict in Georgia. The report is entitled "Up In Flames."

"We have seen the report. Unfortunately, the main point that we are forced to make is that the authors of the documents, whose declared purpose is to investigate violations of humanitarian law in the course of the South Ossetia conflict have been unable to pluck up the determination to hold the Georgian side responsible for the aggression against the South Ossetian population and the Russian peacekeepers unleashed in August 2008," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Monday.

"We would also like to point out that the document is based on a set of hackneyed and groundless theses that are being hyped in certain foreign political and media circles. We have repeatedly given explanations about the essence of those theses, which include allegations about the responsibility of the Russian Federation for the actions of South Ossetian units and about a disproportionate response to Tbilisi's aggressive actions," the statement said.

"As usual, the report has practically nothing to say about the tremendous damage that South Ossetia sustained as a result of the Georgian aggression," it said.

"On the whole, the document does not contain any points to make it essentially different from studies published earlier; in other words, it contains nothing different from earlier reactions by Western experts to South Ossetia developments," the ministry said.