ICCN Director: Support of conflicts resolution would be great historic decision by Russia

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The director of the authoritative Georgian NGO “International Center for Conflicts and Negotiations” (ICCN) Giorgy Khutsishvili does not expect much from the June 13 St. Petersburg meeting of Georgian and Russian presidents Mikhail Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin. “In order to be able to expect some serious decisions from the meeting, the sides should have lessened the tension between Russia and Georgia and should have attained a more favorable atmosphere for decision making,” Khutsishvili says to REGNUM.

Commenting on the opinion that this meeting is the last chance for Georgia and Russia to lead their relations into a positive course, and that this depends on the problem of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian conflicts resolution, Khutsishvili says that “one should not approach this problem like that as this closes the ways for further talks and further relations.” “As far as I know, much has been done for this meeting, many consultations have been held, particularly, with the American side, and I know that there are certain expectations from this meeting. The question is how much real influence these expectations can have on the course of the talks and on the adoption of decisions that could change the situation in the conflict zones. I doubt that this is possible under the growing tensions we have at the moment. Now that relations are so tensed, Putin will hardly up and decide to fully accept the Georgian settlement scenario.”

Khutsishvili says that “the relations of Russia and Georgia – two neighboring states and very important players in the region – will not depend on the outcome of one meeting” and, perhaps, “there will be some temporary variation on, say, some failed attempt to agree on some issue.” “I hope that this will not influence the further constructive development of Russian-Georgian relations as neither Russia nor Georgia have an alternative to friendly and constructive neighborhood. In this light, I believe that to support the conflicts resolution would be a great historic decision on Russia’s part and would, finally, improve Russian-Georgian relations and Russia’s approach towards Georgia, in general. This would change everything, and no person, no official would then be able to spoil anything, however much he might want or try to. However, given the present relations, I don’t think that this particular meeting will have any magic effects on the conflicts resolution.”