Georgia asks Russia for talks to resolve disputes

Georgia has asked Russia for talks on alleged rights violations including ethnic cleansing that it claims were committed by Moscow over the past two decades, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, June 28.

The ministry said it sent a note to Moscow on Monday asking for talks about the alleged “violations” that were raised during Georgia’s unsuccessful attempt to bring charges against Russia in The Hague this year.

The International Court of Justice declined in April to hear Georgia’s case brought under the UN anti-discrimination charter, saying it had “no jurisdiction to entertain the application”.

It said that Georgia should have tried harder to negotiate with ex-Soviet neighbour Russia before seeking the court’s intervention.

Tbilisi wants Moscow “to participate in further negotiations to resolve the disputes that have arisen with respect to the Russian Federation’s responsibility for breaches of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination”, a ministry statement said.

One of the alleged breaches is that Russia carried out ethnic cleansing during the brief war between the two countries in 2008.