Putin: Russia “Consistently Stands for Good-Neighborly Relations” with Georgia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 8 that “Russia consistently stands for development and strengthening of good-neighborly relations with Georgia, peoples of which are linked with  Russia by centuries of shared history.”

“Our genuine aspiration towards cooperating with Georgia is demonstrated in our consistent efforts to render assistance to a political settlement of regional conflicts,” Russian news agencies quoted the Russian President as saying. 
 
Putin was speaking in the Kremlin after new Georgian Ambassador to Russia Irakli Chubinishvili presented his credentials to the Russian President.

Putin’s remarks are to be interpreted in the context of Georgian demands to modify the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Performance of the Russian peacekeeping troops there is considered by the Parliament and official Tbilisi as inadequate for the political settlement.

Putin’s seeming separation of the relations with Georgia (as a state) from the “century-old” relations with its “peoples” (Russian “narody” usually meaning differing ethno-political groups) is also bound to raise eyebrows in Tbilisi.

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