Georgia blames Russia for failure of Geneva talks

As stated at a briefing in Tbilisi by Nikoloz Vashakidze, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, another round of Geneva talks on security in the Caucasus was fruitless again because of Russia's unconstructive position. The Russian party believes that Geneva negotiations have no alternative.

"At the Geneva talks, the Georgian party raised three main issues: Russia's obligation not to use force against Georgia; the need to have security mechanisms in the occupied territories; and decent and safe return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their homes. Unfortunately, because of the unconstructive position of the Russian party, no progress was made in any of them," said Mr Vashakidze as quoted by the "News-Georgia".

He also stressed that the USA have again, this time in the person of Undersecretary of State Philip Gordon, "fixed their strong support of the Georgia's territorial integrity, and clearly treated what had happened in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupation."

Meanwhile, Grigory Karasin, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, said that the Geneva discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia "will continue", because they have no alternative; and the Geneva talks are an important factor for regional stability."

According to his story, "Georgians are well aware of the fact that Russia has never threatened and will not threaten them," while "Georgia's leaders are also well aware that they had made a criminal mistake in August 2008; they now try to reverse the situation," but "reversing is impossible," the RIA "Novosti" reports.

The South-Ossetian party again raised the issue of detainees and missing persons, as well as the problem of gas supplies to the Leningor District of South Ossetia. In the course of debates, as reported by David Sanakoev, a member of the South-Ossetian delegation, it was pointed to "artificial barriers, erected by Georgian authorities, when local residents are crossing the South-Ossetian-Georgian border," while the government of South Ossetia had set simplified border-crossing rules for villagers of the Leningor District, inhabited mainly by the Georgian-language population.