Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on Zurabishvili’s Election

Moscow is “maintaining its position in respect of Georgia,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing on November 30, responding to the question about Salome Zurabishvili’s victory in the presidential race.

“It was not Russia who initiated cutting the diplomatic ties with this country. We maintain, that it was a colossal mistake made by those who were in power at that time in Georgia,” Zakharova said, adding that it is “the peoples of the two countries” who are “suffering most from such situation.”

The Foreign Ministry Spokesperson also underscored that relations “between people and nations” still continue through cultural dialogue, economic relations, and humanitarian links, “which are not related to interstate relations.”

However, she said these relations “are very complicated due to the absence of normal diplomatic relations between the two states.”

Degrees of separation

Georgia has severed the diplomatic ties with Russia following the Russo-Georgia War in 2008. Moscow offered to restore diplomatic relations in March 2012, and then Deputy Spokesperson Zakharova was disappointed by Tbilisi’s refusal to do so.

Following the ascent to power of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) in October 2012, official Tbilisi has maintained its position, that no diplomatic relations between the two states may exist, until Moscow continues to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.

Even so, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has appointed Zurab Abashidze as his Special Envoy, to discuss issues of bilateral importance. Abashidze continues to meet Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Moscow has eased visa rules for Georgians in 2015. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in July 2016, that these meetings set a “correct trend”, but said the initiative to restore official ties must come from Tbilisi.

As the relations between Tbilisi and Moscow were hit by a new chill in 2017, and further deteriorated in 2018, following the murder of the Georgian citizen while in detention in Tskhinvali, DFM Karasin’s rhetoric has hardened. Still, the two capitals have agreed to start implementing a deal to allow the passage of goods through occupied territories, verified by a Swiss company.

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