Talk with Government ? Saakashvili Tells Moscow

Russia should talk with the Georgia’s leadership, if it is really willing to have a dialogue with the Georgian people, President Saakashvili said on February 4.

Saakashvili’s remarks were made in response to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev’s statement that Moscow has always remained and will remain “committed to centuries-old tradition of good neighborly and friendly relations with its close Georgian people.”

Medvedev also said in his written address to the congress of Georgians living in Russia: “We sincerely want to see stable, independent and genuinely democratic Georgian state; the state, which lives in peace and security, which has friendly relations with other states.”

The Russian leadership has said previously that they would not negotiate directly with the Georgian President and Medvedev even said in September: “President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes; he is a political corpse.”

“I want to tell the Russian government and the President: if they want to talk with the Georgian people, they should talk with the government, elected by Georgia and we can talk on any issue after Russia de-occupies the Georgian territories and after it retreats from the occupied territories,” he said.

Saakashvili spoke mockingly about the congress of Georgian community in Russia held on February 3, calling it “so called gathering of Georgians, organized by the Kremlin.”

“They [Russia] say that there are million Georgians living in Russia – although there are not as many – and in a 310-seat hall they could hardly gather 191 participants from all over Russia,” Saakashvili said. “They could not even fill the smallest hall in Moscow and the Russian President changed his decision last minute and did not go to the event”

“I want to thank all the Georgian citizens of all ethnicity who went from Georgia and are now in Russia; they acted in dignity… Just imagine, they [the Russian authorities] have in fact failed to find anyone – although there have been rare exceptions – who would have confronted own country [Georgia] and this amounts to civil heroism in today’s Russia,” he added.

The congress was organized by Mikheil Khubutia, head of the Union of Georgians in Russia. Khubutia, who says that President Medvedev is his friend, told journalists on February 4 that while Russia can live without Georgia, it will be difficult for the latter to live without Russia.

Khubutia said in a recent interview with the Georgian television that he had invited some of the officials from the Georgian government, including Iulon Gagoshidze, the state minister for diaspora issues; the latter declined to participate. Nestan Kirtadze of the opposition Labor Party participated in the event.

In December the Russian daily, Kommersant, reported that President Saakashvili had an attempt to establish contacts with the Russian authorities through intermediaries and met with Khubutia in Munich in November for that purpose. There has been no official confirmation of the report from the Georgian authorities.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)