The plan from Germany is vague

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier proposed a plan to resolve the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia. His Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov called this plan “conceptually absolutely correct,” writes Kommersant. However, President Dmitry Medvedev was in no hurry to make assessments at the meeting with the German minister. According to Steinmeier's plan, the first phase of the settlement should be the signing of an agreement between the parties on the non-use of force and the beginning of the process of returning Georgian refugees to Abkhazia. The second is the restoration of Abkhazia with funds from donor countries. Only after this is it supposed to resolve the issue of the status of the unrecognized republic. The provision on the return of Georgian refugees has already caused a strong reaction from the President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh, who said that this point of the program is unacceptable. He also said that an agreement on the non-use of force could be signed after Georgian troops were withdrawn from the Kodori Gorge. Medvedev did not mention refugees at all in a conversation with the German minister, Izvestia wrote on Monday. He called the withdrawal of troops from the gorge a necessary condition for starting negotiations on a peaceful settlement. This is not news - Russia insists on this point, citing the 1994 agreements. At the same time, Lavrov noted that the withdrawal of troops is “unlikely in the near future.” The upper part of the Kodori Gorge is the only section of Abkhaz territory under the control of Tbilisi. There are already reports in Georgia that new units of Russian troops are being introduced into this area in order to drag Georgia into the war, Radio Liberty reported on July 21. However, Foreign Minister of Abkhazia Sergei Shamba stated that no additional units of the Russian army were introduced into Abkhazia.