Putin Calls For Sobriety, Sangfroid On Caucasian Issue

The entire range of intricate North Caucasian and Transcaucasian problems demands calm and sober professional attitudes free of excessive emotion, said Russia's President Vladimir Putin as he was talking to journalists at the State Kremlin Palace during an evening gala on Agro-Industrial Complex Day. Karabakh, South Ossetia, its refugees sheltered by Russia, and Abkhazia are prominent among the many acute Caucasian issues, said President Putin as he highlighted Russia's readiness to join constructive teamwork on those issues. North Caucasian and Transcaucasian problems are well-known on the Georgian top--"known better than to many of us"--in particular, because "Georgia's President was among foremost leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet state when those problems were budding," he remarked. President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia was USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs and prominent Central Committee member of the Soviet Communist Party during Mikhail Gorbachev's rule.