TBILISI, December 5. /TASS/. Without a full-fledged restoration of relations with Russia it would be impossible to settle Georgia’s key problems, former speaker of the Georgian parliament Nino Burdzhanadze said in an interview with the Imedi television channel on Saturday.
She called on the Georgian authorities "to begin a direct dialogue with the Russian top officials."
"A direct dialogue of the kind is necessary for conditions to settle the key problems in this country, including for making conditions for a peaceful unification of Georgia," she said.
Burdzhanadze was the parliament’s speaker from November 2001 through to May 2008.
The meetings between envoy of the Georgian prime minister on relations with Russia Zurab Abashdze and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin were the first direct dialogue between the parties since 2008. The first meeting was organised in December, 2012 near Geneva, and after 2013 their meetings take place in Prague; they had ten meetings over past three years. At the meetings, the parties discuss cooperation in trade, economy, transport, culture and humanitarian issues.