Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is ready to “help” Georgia, Abkhazia, and Tskhinvali “normalize relations” if they are “interested”. Sergei Lavrov made the statement at the press conference following the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.
He praised the Georgian government for “simply being honest about the past,” referring to GD patron Bidzina Ivanishvili’s recent talk of apologizing to Ossetians for the 2008 war, which he blamed on the then UNM government, not Russia.
“They [Abkhazia and Tskhinvali] are neighbors of Georgia, some kind of contacts there are inevitable anyway,” the Russian minister said, adding: “If there is interest on all sides to normalize these relations, to ensure non-aggression agreements… we will be ready to help if the parties are interested.” The non-aggression agreement, or non-use of force, that Lavrov mentioned is the issue that Russia has been pushing hard for in the Geneva talks. Such an agreement would recognize Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as sides in the conflict, and thus as subjects of international law.
Lavrov’s statement comes just after the UNGA, where Georgian PM Irakli Kobakhidze did not mention Russia in his final speech to the General Assembly when he addressed the occupation. In the run-up to the elections, the GD openly blames the former UNM government and then-President Mikheil Saakashvili for starting the August war and threatens to ban UNM and other opposition parties after the elections.
Earlier, the de-facto foreign ministry in occupied Tskhinvali also reacted to Ivanishvili’s apology offer, saying it expected concrete “practical measures” from Tbilisi in the future, specifically mentioning – just like Lavrov – the official commitment not to use force.
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