Saakashvili: Georgia will not Follow Russia’s ‘Bait’

Russia wants to lure Georgians with “baits” like resumption of direct flights between the two countries, but Georgian should remember that Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin will never do “anything good for Georgia,” President Saakashvili said on January 22.

“Russians announced that they will not allow our flights. At first they said they have no objections [about resuming of flights]; they expected that Georgia itself would have said no to resumption of flights,” he told Georgian journalists in Estonia, where he is for a working visit.

After allowing three charter flights in mid-January, Russia turned down the Georgian Airways’ request to resume regular flights saying that it was up to the aviation authorities of the two countries to negotiate the issue. The Russian Transport Ministry said it was up to Tbilisi to come out with the initiative to start talks.

“It is time to understand several things,” Saakashvili continued, “the one that Mr. Putin does not really want anything good for Georgia.”

“And another one – in his [referring to PM Putin] imagination the Georgian people are like when you hang hay in front of a donkey as a bait to make it move wherever you want – so they say ‘we will let your wines on [Russian market]; we will resume flights; we will return territories’ – so he [Putin] thinks our people will follow these baits,” Saakashvili said.

“But he [Putin] has a very superficial impression about Georgia and the Georgian people. Maybe some persons who go to visit him really reminds him certain animal, but he does not know Georgia and he does not know what Georgia’s dignity and courage is.”

“So instead of following this bait, our goal today is to work on the markets of our friendly [countries], which will never be closed for us and we should give up illusions that… Putin will return something to us or be kind with us,” he added.

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