Russian MFA Comments on Abkhaz Railway Talks

Russian representatives express their enthusiasm about the launch of an assessment of the current condition of the railway in breakaway Abkhazia by a joint group of experts from Russia and Abkhazia, and their regret that Georgian representatives are absent in this joint group, the Russian Foreign Ministry?s spokesman Mikheil Kaminin said in a statement issued on August 12.

Georgian experts were to join their counterparts from Russia and Abkhazia on August 9, but, as officials in Tbilisi explain, the Abkhaz side refused to grant entry to several Georgian experts who are internally displaced persons from Abkhazia. Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Giorgi Khaindrava accused the Abkhaz side on August 11 of discriminating against the Georgian experts.

But as Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikheil Kaminin said, Tbilisi?s accusation is ?groundless.?

?We call on both sides, and first of all on the Georgian side, to take measures aimed at finding a compromise and not hold this important economic project hostage to political ambitions,? Kaminin said.

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