Georgia Offers Bilateral Talks to Ease Tensions

After Russia’s refusal to accept international mediation to help ease tensions with Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he was ready to meet Russia’s president to solve disputes “in a bilateral format.”

But officials in Moscow said there is no need for top-level talks, as Tbilisi should first show signs of giving up its anti-Russian policy.

Modest Kolerov, the Russian presidential administration official in charge of regional relations, told Georgian journalists on October 9 that the top-level meeting should first be prepared at a lower level in order to ascertain that Georgia is ready to stop “hostile actions” towards Russia.

“The problem lies in revising opinions – the problem is not who will take the first steps [towards the dialogue]. The most important thing is to think over the entire system of relations,” Kolerov said.

Speaking with senior parliamentarians from the ruling National Movement party on October 9, President Saakashvili said “we want to solve problems with Russia in a bilateral format… We have no dispute with the Russian people.”

But he also warned that Tbilisi is considering the possibility of referring the Georgian deportees’ cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Georgia accused Russia of violating the rights of a number of Georgians who have recently been deported from Russia.

Although Sergey Mironov, Speaker of the Russian Federal Council (upper house of the Parliament), welcomed President Saakashvili’s readiness for talks on October 10, he complained that threats of taking Russia to the ECHR belies this willingness.

Meanwhile, officials in Tbilisi seem to be disappointed with the European Union reaction to the current crisis between Russia and Georgia.

Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said in an interview with the RFE/RL Georgian Service that “sometimes I think some European countries are making their statements very carefully… it’s time to speak even more loudly.”

“I think that all international structures — the United Nations, the European Union, and European countries — they should really be more actively involved in all these issues,” she said.
 
Officials in Moscow have also warned Tbilisi that Russia will respond if there is a resumption of hostilities in breakaway South Ossetia or Abkhazia.

Speaking on Russian television on October 8, Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov said Moscow will not stand aside if Tbilisi launches a military campaign in Abkhazia or South Ossetia, where Russian citizens reside and Russian peacekeepers are deployed.

Senor Kremlin official Modest Kolerov also warned on October 9 that “aggression will be responded to with aggression” in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.