Putin, Saakashvili ‘Exchange Opinions,’ but not Face-to-face

President Saakashvili ended his visit to Minsk, where a summit of CIS leaders was held, without a separate meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on November 28.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the Russian and Georgian Presidents had “a very useful” conversation during a closed-door session of CIS heads of state.

“I think that during our meeting there was a very productive exchange of opinions between President Saakashvili and the Russian President; I think it was a very useful [conversation] which creates hope that relations will improve through a show of a mutual goodwill by both sides,” Nazarbayev said. He declined to elaborate further, saying that the issue is “beyond CIS affairs.”

Nazarbayev, who holds rotating chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), was the only leader to appear at a news conference after the summit. Executive Secretary of the CIS Vladimir Rushailo also attended the news conference.

“All the Presidents at the summit today were saying that this [CIS] is an important venue for meetings… Another issue is its effectiveness -this is exactly what we have been discussing,” Nazarbayev said.

He added that the CIS leaders instructed a council of Foreign Ministers to elaborate and submit a paper on reform of the CIS by June, 2007.

The remarks by the Kazakh President were made in response to the question of whether Georgia had voiced criticism towards the CIS at the summit.

“No official document about a withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States has yet been filed by Georgia,” Vladimir Rushailo, the CIS Executive Secretary, said.

President Saakashvili has not yet made any comment.

Reportedly, journalists in Minsk were initially expecting a joint news conference by all the CIS leaders, but according to the Georgian Public Broadcaster. shortly before the news conference reporters were informed that only the Kazakh President and CIS Executive Secretary would appear.

A joint news conference by the Presidents after the 2004 CIS summit in Astana turned into a verbal sparring match between the Georgian and Russian leaders over the Abkhaz conflict.

Before departure to Minsk, President Saakashvili said that he was going to the CIS summit because “Georgia has no right to ignore any rostrum,” and with a hope to hold a separate meeting with Putin.

Some other top level Georgian officials were saying that Georgia should use any chance to demonstrate to the west that Tbilisi is ready for a dialogue with Russia.

“It will be negative for Putin himself if he declines Tbilisi’s proposal for a bilateral meeting,” Giorgi Baramidze, the Georgian Vice-Premier and State Minister in charge of Euro-Atlantic integration issues, said on November 27.

The Georgian President’s press office reported that Saakashvili met his Azerbaijani and Kazakh counterparts in Minsk on the sidelines of the summit.

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