Russian Deputy FM on Ties with Georgia

The Georgian leadership is creating “image of enemy” from Russia in order to avoid responsibility before its own people “for the collapse of the country,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Ministry, Grigory Karasin, said.

“I believe, that reasonable and responsible leadership will emerge in Tbilisi over time, which will make it possible to revive in its full scale good neighborly Russian-Georgian relations,” he said in an interview with Itar-Tass news agency on December 12, two days before the eighteenth round of Geneva talks.

Karasin, who is Russia’s chief negotiator in the Geneva talks, launched after the August, 2008 war, said that “new situation” on the ground had emerged and no one could escape from that reality. “Only the war can be an alternative to the negotiating process, which is taking into account new political-legal relations in the region,” Karasin said.

“I hope it is being realized everywhere, including in Tbilisi,” he said.

He criticized Tbilisi for refusing to sign, what Moscow calls, a binding non-use of force treaty with Sokhumi and Tskhinvali.

Georgia has already made unilateral non-use of force pledge and is calling on Russia to reciprocate, but Moscow refuses arguing that it is not a party into the conflict and instead calls on Tbilisi to agree on a non-use of force treaties with Tskhinvali and Sokhumi.

Karasin said that unilateral non-use of force pledge made by Tbilisi and then also by Sokhumi and Tskhinvali helped to move the process forward. He, however, said Tskhinvali and Sokhumi deemed Tbilisi’s unilateral pledge “not sufficient”. He reiterated that Moscow, together with the EU and the U.S., could serve as “a guarantor of peaceful commitments” by Tbilisi, Sokhumi and Tskhinvali.

Asked on prospects of bilateral Russian-Georgian relations, Karasin responded: “Creating ‘image of enemy’ from Russia is a mean for the current leadership in Tbilisi to shun away from responsibility before its own people for the collapse of the country, to distract attention from difficult social-economic and financial situation and violation of democratic freedoms in Georgia. Georgia’s official propaganda distorted in a clearly confrontational manner even the substance of agreements on customs and trade issues between Russia and Georgia in the context of Russia’s WTO accession.”

He also added that the WTO deal had a potential to become “a starting point for improving atmosphere in the bilateral relations.” “It seems that this chance has been wasted,” Karasin said.