MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin met on Wednesday with the leader of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia opposition party, Nino Burdzhanadze," to discuss Russian-Georgian relations, the lower house’s website reports.

Naryshkin and the former Georgian speaker "discussed the current state and prospects for the development of Russia and Georgia bilateral relations as well as the situation in the Black Sea region and in the South Caucasus," the website posted.

Relations between the two countries soured when on August 8, 2008, Georgian forces attacked the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia sent its forces into the region to protect the citizens of South Ossetia, many of whom held Russian passports, and expelled the Georgian forces. Russia then recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, after which Georgia broke off diplomatic relations with it.