Lavrov Refuses to Honor Fallen Soldiers During Visit

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has refused to lay a wreath at the memorial of Georgia’s fallen soldiers during his visit to Georgia on February 18, Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said at a news briefing on Wednesday.

This item was removed from the schedule of the visit at the insintence of the Russian side; as a result Sergey Lavrov’s visit has also been downgraded from an “official” visit to a “working” one, Zourabichvili added.

?The representative of the Russian Federation to Georgia said that Lavrov could not lay wreath at the memorial of Georgia?s fallen soldiers, as is envisaged by the protocol. This is a non-neighborly and inadequate gesture by the Russian side,? Salome Zourabichvili said.
 
?Despite this fact we do not intend to further escalate the situation, since it is necessary to continue dialogues. We will receive the Russian Foreign Minister within the frames of a working visit, instead of an official one,? the Foreign Minister added.

This demarche of the Russian minister follows an exchange of barbed comments between the two countries, after talks over the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia and a framework agreement collapsed on February 11.