Medvedev Speaks on Russia’s Red Lines on Georgia

Russia is ready to discuss issues related with stability in the Caucasus with western powers, but Moscow has two “red lines” in respect of Georgia, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said in an interview with China Central TV.

The first one, he said, was recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“Our decision is irreversible; the decision we have taken was certainly painful,” Medvedev said.

The second “red line”, he said, was Moscow’s “attitude towards the current regime in Tbilisi”.

“It is our view that that this political regime has committed a crime and we will have nothing common with this [regime],” Medvedev said. “At the same time, after elections, which will take place in Georgia sooner or later, we surely will be ready to return to discussions of various issues if the Georgian people elect a new leadership capable of maintaining a friendly dialogue with Russia and with close neighbors of the Georgian state – peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.”

He also reiterated Moscow’s arguments about the August war and said that “everything that happened was a result of irresponsible and delinquent policy pursued by the Georgian leadership.”

Medvedev said that Moscow had to intervene to protect its citizens and eventually decided to recognize the two breakaway regions.

“The United States took a rather tough stance regarding these actions,” he continued. “It is for this state [the U.S.] to decide. But we took our decision all by ourselves, without reckoning upon any support in this regard since this was our humanitarian, and, if you wish, simply and solely moral duty in that situation.”

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