TBILISI, November 27. /TASS/. Georgian-Russian political relations remain largely in deadlock and the two countries are far from being good neighbors, Georgian Prime Minister’s special representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze said in a televised interview with Georgian channel Imedi.
"Unfortunately, we [Georgia and Russia - TASS] are far from having a good-neighborly relationship. They [Russia] are aware as well that our political ties remain in a rather deep deadlock. No way out of this impasse can be seen," Abashidze said.
Abashidze has headed for Prague to hold a regular round of talks with Russian senator Grigory Karasin. Their latest meeting took place in the Czech capital on June 13.
Following August 2008, Russia and Georgia have accumulated a burden of unresolved issues. The top priority is to restore diplomatic relations and resume visa-free travel for Georgia, which was introduced in 2000. The Abashidze-Karasin talks began in 2012 after a coalition headed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili came to power in Georgia.
Tbilisi severed diplomatic relations with Moscow on September 2, 2008 after Russia had recognized Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s independence. The Georgian foreign ministry said back then it would maintain only consular relations with Russia. A section of Russian interests employing Russian diplomats has been operating at the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi since March 2009, and a similar Georgian section has been operating under the Swiss embassy in Moscow.
In November 2012, Georgia’s then Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili established an office of prime minister’s special envoy for relations with Russia and appointed diplomat Zurab Abashidze, Georgia’s former ambassador to Russia in 2000-2004, to that post. On December 14, 2012, Abashidze’s first meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin took place in a Geneva suburb. It resumed direct dialogue between the two countries’ officials suspended after the 2008 developments.