Belarusian TV showed interview with Mikhail Saakashvili

In the evening on July 15, the first channel of the Belarusian state television showed an exclusive interview with President of Georgia, in which Mikhail Saakashvili answered the questions on modernization of Georgia, whether it is possible to reconcile Tbilisi and Moscow, when Georgia would join the European Union, about South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and even about his gastronomic preferences.

While answering the questions asked by Denis Kuryan, a special correspondent of the TV News Agency of the Belarusian Television and Radio Company, Mr Saakashvili praised the Belarusian foreign policy, including the fact that the official Minsk until now has not recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

On Russia, the Georgian leader was tough: "It's difficult to understand what they wanted, because all the time we wanted making advances. Whenever we made concessions, they wanted more."

At the same time he stated his love for the Russian people and Russian culture and expressed fears that tense mutual relations would tell negatively on the presence of Russian culture in Georgia. "I always said that I'm the last but one or even the last President of Georgia able to cite Pushkin, Lermontov, Brodsky and Yesenin," said Saakashvili.

He also said that he forces his son to study Russian, but he, in his turn, "says that nobody around leans Russian and asks what it is for," the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Mikhail Saakashvili blamed Russia for the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Natalia Estemirova, disappearance of "tens of thousands" persons in North-Caucasian republics of Russia, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.

Boris Gryzlov, Speaker of the State Duma, expressed his surprise on the occasion of Mikhail Saakashvili's invitation to perform on air of the Belarusian television. "For us, for Russia Mr Saakashvili is a derelict; we have no and will never have any attitudes with him," said Gryzlov in his comment on the event.

Meanwhile, as reported by the "Caucasian Knot", on June 23, during his visit to the USA, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev expressed his confidence that Russian-Georgian relations would return into the normal track after the change of the President of Georgia. Mr Medvedev has noted: "I don't see how it can be done with the incumbent President."