The Kremlin has decided to lift sanctions imposed last year on President Saakashvili’s regime after it became clear that the measure failed to yield any results and, on the contrary, the sanctions have further decreased the level of Georgia’s dependency on Russia, the Russian daily Kommersant said in a front-page article on January 19.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on January 18 that Moscow is sending its Ambassador back to Tbilisi, four month after recalling him over spy row with Georgia. Politicians and media sources both in Russia and Georgia are guessing that Russia will also restore transport links with Georgia.
A decision to say no to “anti-Georgian sanctions” was made last week at a session of the Russian National Security Council, which was convened to discuss Russo-Georgian relations, according to the Kommersant.
“The session has analyzed the consequences of the measures that were imposed against Mikheil Saakashvili’s regime in October 2006. It is hard to say what kind of data was discussed during the session of the Security Council, but according to open statistical sources the situation in Georgia is not as unfavorable as Moscow expected,” the Russian daily writes.
“The Kremlin’s estimations that sanctions would lead to the fall of Saakashvili turned to be invalid… On the contrary, the anti-Georgian campaign has damaged [Russia’s] reputation both in Georgia and in the west. The position of pro-Russian politicians in Georgia has been undermined and popular support towards Georgia’s NATO membership has further increased. After analyzing all these factors, policy-makers in the Kremlin have apparently concluded that only saying no to sanctions can improve the situation,” the Kommersant says.
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