Saakashvili Speaks of Relations with Russia

Although not wishing to make any predictions, President Saakashvili said positive signs could be detected in Russo-Georgian relations.

Speaking with a group of Russian journalists in Strasbourg after his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on January 24, Saakashvili said that there had been ?a very good beginning? to Russo-Georgian ties back in 2004 in the early months of his first presidential term. ?There was four or five month honeymoon period, which unfortunately then turned into a scuffle,? Saakashvili said.

?There have been too many false starts in our relations, so making any forecasts about our ties or being very optimist about it is too difficult,? he said.

Saakashvili said his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was in Tbilisi on January 20 for Saakashvili?s presidential inauguration, gave him reason to hope.

Minister Lavrov, Saakashvili said, was ?very constructive.? Although no concrete results emerged, the president said Lavrov had told him personally that that Moscow had no intention of recognizing Abkhazia or South Ossetia, even if Kosovo were granted independence. This, Saakashvili said, was very important at this stage. Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on January 23, Lavrov said: ?The Russian authorities have never said that after Kosovo we would immediately recognize Abkhazia or South Ossetia.?

Saakashvili said that it had been agreed to send the Georgian foreign minister to Russia for talks. Tbilisi had also, he said, proposed that PM-nominee Lado Gurgenidze visit Russia after the new cabinet is confirmed. ?We have not yet received a response on that proposal,? Saakashvili said.

He also said that a visit by a Russian delegation to Georgia to study issues related to Georgian wine and mineral water had also been arranged. Russia banned the import of Georgian wine and mineral water in 2006.
 
Saakashvili said he could not see the rationale behind the Russian economic embargo. ?This embargo failed to trigger any shock, depression or economic catastrophe. The opposite has happened; our economy got stronger in the last year and a half and the figures confirm it,? Saakashvili said, adding that Georgia?s economy had grown 12% in 2007.

When asked about his election campaign promise to return internally displaced persons to Abkhazia within a year, Saakashvili said the timeframe was ?absolutely realistic,? provided the current deadlock in the conflict resolution process were broken. In particular, he said, a change in the mandate of the current Russian-led peacekeeping operation was needed.

?We are not expelling the Russians [from the conflict resolution process],? he said. ?The initial mandate [of the Russian peacekeeping forces] was to help IDPs to return in a week; this week has lasted for years? Any peacekeeper, even from Bangladesh or somewhere else, would be better if they secured the return of the IDPs.?

?Saying this [that IDPs would return to Abkhazia within a year] did not mean resolving the conflict through military means,? Saakashvili said.

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