MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — Tbilisi is not satisfied with the trade on the “occupied territories.” Meanwhile, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in an interview with the Rustavi-2 TV company on Saturday afternoon declared that he would meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin “who officially is returning to the presidency.”
Saakashvili outlined the conditions without meeting which there will be no dialogue, Nezavisimavya Gazeta writes. Taking into account that Moscow definitely will not fulfil one of them - RF troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not be withdrawn, Saakashvili’s statement acquires an imitation nature. His current statement, according to observers, was actually a response to the call of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who visited Tbilisi. He (Sarkozy) noting in his speech that Russia has deprived Georgia of part of its territories, urged to do everything necessary to ensure that Russia again becomes an ally for Georgia.
Georgian political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze believes that the position on the Georgian-Russian relations expressed by Sarkozy is not new, and the same words, in particular, were said earlier by US Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Georgia. However, the authorities of the two countries do not follow recommendations of the high-ranking politicians. “Even yesterday there were aggressive tones in the speech of the Georgian president. So, perhaps, it is too early to talk about a change in the attitudes among politicians of both Georgia and Russia,” Sakvarelidze states.
Georgia has once again blocked the entry of Russia into the WTO, Novye Izvestiya writes. The Georgian side demands the deployment of international observers on the disputed borders of Abkhazia and the Tskhinval region, specifically on the Gantiadi-Adler and Rocky - Upper Zaramag checkpoints, as well as the introduction of a modern system of the exchange of information on the movement of cargoes, which will ensure transparency of trade. “Georgia cannot give its consent to the entry of Russia into the WTO until Russia changes its position on trade within the occupied territories,” Georgian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Kapanadze said, referring, clearly, to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In turn, the head of the Russian delegation at the talks Maxim Medvedkov said: “Georgia’s demands to us are beyond the scope of WTO activity.”
In the view of deputy head of the department of regional economics and economic geography of the Higher School of Economics Alexei Skopin, the fact that the meetings in Switzerland yielded no result does not mean that Russia will officially announce the termination of the negotiating process on its accession to the WTO.