Saakashvili, Putin Held Phone Talks

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by phone on March 21 and thanked him for “positive role in solving Adjara crisis.”

Russian media reported quoting Putin’s spokesman Aleksey Gromov that Russian President welcomed defusing tensions in the region “by the political means.”

Speaking in a Slovak capital Bratislava on March 19, Mikheil Saakashvili said that Russia, which has a military base in Adjara, “played a positive role to end the crisis.”

Saakashvili said during the crisis he spoke with President Putin and the Russian military in Adjara were ordered “not to leave the territory of the military base” and not to interfere in crisis.