‘Tbilisi was Notified about Russian Decision on Abkhazia in Advance’

Georgia was notified in advance about Russia’s decision to pull out from the Abkhaz sanction treaty, Interfax news agency reported on March 8, quoting an unnamed Kremlin source.

“President Putin informed President Saakashvili about this decision during their recent meeting [in Moscow on February 21],” the source said. “The information was received by the Georgian side calmly.”

Tbilisi claims that Russia pulled out from the 1996 CIS treaty unilaterally without notifying the Georgian side. President Saakashvili, however, said on February 26 that he had raised the issue of Abkhaz sanctions during his meeting with his Russian counterpart. Saakashvili said: “[Russia] should meet its commitments regarding the CIS sanctions. You know, that these sanctions have been formally in force since 1996 against Abkhazia. Many of these sanctions fail to prove effective and we categorically demand that the Russian leadership fully implement these sanctions against those people, who carried out ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia.”

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)