It's too early to go to the Kremlin

Gela Bezhuashvili entered and left Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili, who arrived in Moscow to participate in a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. “This possibility was explored, but the president decided not to hold the meeting,” a Kremlin source told reporters late on Tuesday.

Mr Bezhuashvili arrived in the Russian capital from Baku on Tuesday evening. Having learned about the impossibility of meeting with Putin, the Georgian minister made it clear that this did not affect his working mood and would not affect the main goal of his visit - to try to resume dialogue with Russia and discuss the possibilities of organizing a bilateral meeting between the Russian and Georgian presidents.

Gela Bezhuashvili became the first senior Georgian official to arrive in Moscow amid unprecedented tension in bilateral relations after Georgian intelligence services detained four Russian officers on espionage charges on September 27. The head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry hopes that a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Mikheil Saakashvili could take place at the end of November in Minsk at the summit of CIS heads of state.

Mr. Bezhuashvili listed the conditions under which a resumption of dialogue with Moscow is possible: the lifting of economic sanctions imposed against Georgia and Russia’s refusal to “continue the policy of pressure on its neighbors.” However, the minister softened the ultimatum tone with a statement that Tbilisi would like to see Russia as a leader in the post-Soviet space. True, for this, Moscow, instead of “manipulating” Abkhazia and South Ossetia in order to undermine the central power of Tbilisi, could take on the role of a mediator in resolving these conflicts. But “if Russia’s intentions include the fragmentation of Georgia,” then Bezhuashvili does not see opportunities for partnership.

Yesterday, the Georgian minister met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after which the Russian Foreign Minister admitted: “We met not in the best period of Russian-Georgian relations. We hope that as a result of the conversation we will get more clarity on what can be done to correct this unhealthy situation.”

Bezhuashvili later told the press that the meeting with Sergei Lavrov “was very useful,” since “any meeting can be considered a warming in relations.” A message from the Russian Foreign Ministry, distributed following the meeting between Lavrov and Bezhuashvili, says: “The Russian side once again explained in detail under what conditions Russian-Georgian relations could return to normal.”

These statements mean that the parties again exchanged the usual arguments, but did not reach much mutual understanding. “Judging by the statements of the Georgian minister after the meeting at the Foreign Ministry, he talked about the oppression of Georgians, about sanctions - that is, he discussed issues that were not related to the very basis of the cooling of Russian-Georgian relations. He had nothing to say about Georgia's actual actions to fulfill a number of international obligations. For example, about the UN resolution on Georgia’s withdrawal of military forces from the Kodori Gorge, about Georgia’s readiness to sit down at the negotiating table with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, having previously given them guarantees that existing problems will be resolved peacefully,” a researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries told Vremya Novostei Vladimir Zharikov.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in Israel yesterday where he was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Haifa, said: "Sanctions against us or other small ethnic groups are not something special." In his opinion, Georgia and Israel are similar countries in this sense. "I know what it's like to build a nation when danger is knocking at the door," he added. Saakashvili compared the actions of the Russian authorities towards Georgians with the actions of tsarist officials of the 18th century towards Jews who were deprived of their property rights and evicted beyond the Pale of Settlement. So while the Georgian Foreign Minister was trying to establish contacts, his boss continued his anti-Russian rhetoric, which reduces the already low chances of holding a meeting between the two presidents in the foreseeable future.

Victor VOLODIN, Alexander TIMOFEEV