Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Georgia

Georgia To Offer Putin An Olive Branch

Russian President Vladimir Putin (seated) and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (file photo) (ITAR-TASS)

November 17, 2006 -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says he plans to offer Russian President Vladimir Putin a conciliatory message later this month in an effort to halt the deterioration in Georgia's relations with Russia.

TEXT SIZE - +

November 17, 2006

In an interview with the British newspaper "The Financial Times," Saakashvili reportedly made clear his olive branch to Putin would be offered without compromising Georgia's positions on issues ranging from trade to the status of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Saakashvili said Georgia wants to be seen as a small country with its own interests, rather than as part of an international balance of power.

Saakashvili's comments come in advance of a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Commonwealth of Independent States summit to be held at the end of this month in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

(Reuters, AFP)

Moscow And Tbilisi

Russian military hardware being withdrawn from a Russian base in Batumi, Georgia, in August 2005 (TASS)

WHAT COMES NEXT? Although Russia is unlikely to push an aggressive military response to the current tensions with Georgia, it has a number of economic, political, and diplomatic options at its disposal. Already on October 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin summoned his inner circle to weigh Moscow's options... (more)

Russia Says Georgia Sanctions Will Continue

Russia Suspends Transport, Postal Links To Georgia

EU Commissioner Urges Dialogue With Moscow

Ulterior Motives Seen Behind Escalation Of Spy Row

Georgia Turns Russians Over To OSCE

MORE: Coverage of the situation in Georgian from RFE/RL's Georgian Service and in Russian from RFE/RL's Russian Service.

ARCHIVE

RFE/RL's English-language coverage of Georgia and Russia.

President Serzh Sarkisian has promised fair elections

Prospect Of Vote-Rigging Overshadows Upcoming Armenian Parliamentary Election

The Armenian parliamentary elections due in May will not simply be a struggle between rival political parties with diverging priorities and platforms. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Former KGB head Leonid Tibilov is a presidential hopeful.

Repeat South Ossetian Election Campaign Gathers Momentum

The run-up to the repeat election on March 24 for a new de facto president of Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia bears an uncanny resemblance to last November's election campaign. More