Senior MPs Comment on President’s Canceled Moscow Visit

Influential parliamentarians from the ruling National Movement party Giga Bokeria and Givi Targamadze said at a joint news conference on July 21 that President Saakashvili canceled his visit to Moscow because the Russian side was against of holding bilateral talks between the Georgian and Russian leaders.

“The visit is at least postponed for time being; maybe the visit can take place in the future we do not know at the moment. The reason is very simple: the Russian side refused to hold bilateral talks [between Putin and Saakashvili],” MP Givi Targamadze, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for defense and security, said.

“It seems that President Putin has nothing new to tell [the Georgian President] and he has not finally defined his position,” MP Targamadze said.

MP Giga Bokeria said that the Russian side was also against of making public statements by the Presidents after the meeting.

“If we see again footage of a press conference [held by Putin and Saakashvili after talks] in St. Petersburg [on June 13] it will become clear that President Putin feels very uncomfortable while speaking publicly with Saakashvili and sincerely speaking he [President Putin] is afraid of this kind of public statements, because it creates problems to his image,” MP Bokeria said.

President Saakashvili said on July 18 after the Parliament instructed the government to withdraw Russia peacekeepers from the conflict zones, that the Georgian government will take final decision about peacekeepers after his talks with Putin.

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