Saakashvili on Russia’s “Attempts to Annex’ Abkhazia, S.Ossetia

Recent tension and bomb attacks in breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia aim at distracting international attention from the Russian annexation of Georgian territory, President Saakashvili said on July 8.

Speaking at a session of the National Security Council, Saakashvili, also said Tbilisi was ready to improve ties with Russia.

“Georgia spares no efforts to improve relations with Russia and to find a way out of the gravest crisis, in which we find ourselves due to Russian moves against Georgia’s territorial integrity,” he said.

The Kremlin reported on July 8 that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had told his U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, during a meeting in Japan on the sidelines of a G8 summit, that Russia was ready to normalize ties with Georgia, but Tbilisi had failed to take reciprocal steps.

Saakashvili also said at the National Security Council session that he was “deeply concerned” over recent explosions and tension in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“I want us to understand very well who gains from an escalation in violence, particularly from these explosions,” he continued. “A G8 summit was held in Japan today, where one of the major issues for discussion, as far as we know, was Georgia. The visit of Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, is planned. Georgia is developing fast and this economic development needs calmness and stability and the last thing Georgia needs now is violence, explosions or unrest in any region.”

“Behind these acts of violence there are people, who want to distract attention from the major issue – and this is Georgia’s development – to hamper us in this development as much as possible, and the second, the major issue which is happening in this region – a rough violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity by the Russian Federation, total disregard of the principles of international law and the attempted annexation of the most important parts of Georgian territory.”

He said that he had instructed the government to further intensify consultations with the Russian side in order to defuse tension.

“But I also want to call on our [western] friends to increase diplomatic efforts ten-fold in order to prevent the attempted annexation and illegal occupation of Georgian territory,” Saakashvili said.

“Today some Russian diplomats pretend not to have any links to what is happening there [in Abkhazia and South Ossetia] now,” he continued. "They try to portray that there are internal problems, clashes, explosions, saying that we are here to make these people talk to each other. But they are the key reason behind all the problems, especially over the past few months.”

He also said that Tbilisi was ready to have a dialogue with “any groups, any citizens, including any illegal formations,” but he added that the most important thing for Georgia was “not to allow the infringement of our territorial integrity and not to allow any provocations and escalation in tension.”

“I call on everybody to be organized, watchful and I am sure that nobody will be able to derail us from the way of peaceful development and peaceful restoration of our territorial integrity,” he added.

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