Russian diplomat on Georgian-Abkhazian problem

"The key to the Abkhazian problem is in Tbilisi and Sukhumi [the capital of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia], not in Moscow," Russian Ambassador to Georgia Vladimir Chkhikvishvili said in a live interview with Georgia's Imedi radio station.

According to the diplomat, the point at issue is to establish dialogue between Georgia and Abkhazia, and the United Nations, Russia and the USA will support it.

Commenting on what Georgian political scientists had said about the interests of Russia and the USA clashing in Georgia, he stated: "I have an impression that political scientists moved back 15-20 years, to the moment when there was actually a confrontation between the USSR and the USA." Naturally, the USA has tasks and goals that do not coincide with those of Russia, but that is a natural process, Chkhikvishvili said.

He stressed, at the same time, that Russia, the USA and the European community had a common goal-"a stable and prosperous Georgia, and the inter-ethnic conflicts on its territory must be solved on the basis of reciprocity."