Russia to resume talks with Georgia only after elections

MOSCOW

Russia will be ready to resume deliberations with Georgia, if the Georgian people elect a new leadership, President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Chinese journalists. 

“We believe that this political regime (in Georgia) committed a crime and we shall have nothing in common with it,” he said. “At the same time after elections that sooner or later will be held in Georgia we surely will be ready to resume deliberations on different issues if the Georgian people elect a new leadership capable of maintaining a friendly dialogue with Russia and with close neighbours of the Georgian state – peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.”

“It is needless to say that we are ready to and will discuss with our partners all the issues related to the whole security situation in the Caucasus, the issues of both humanitarian and economic nature, being prepared to do this in any venues,” the president said.

Medvedev stressed that “if it were not for these witless actions (of the Georgian authorities) life could develop differently.” These steps aggravated Russia’s relations not only with Georgia, but also with the United States and the European Union.

“We really had rather difficult talks on this subject with the United States and other European partners, but I am not dramatising anything,” he said. “The present situation is somewhat different. We may diverge on certain issues but our decision is irreversible, the decision we adopted was certainly painful.”

“Today we are engaged in rendering assistance to these new states – both economic, humanitarian, military and technical – and we will continue to do this in the future, irrespective of whether somebody likes this or not. This is our choice and we will work with these projects,” Medvedev said.