Russian Foreign Minister to hold bilateral meetings with Georgian autonomies' leaders

Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov is expected to hold bilateral meetings with leader of Adzharia Aslan Abashidze and prime minister of Abkhazia Raul Khadzhimba on Friday, November 28.

They will discuss the situation obtained in Georgia. A day before Igor Ivanov discussed this issue with leader of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity. In addition, Abashidze, Kokoity and Khadzhimba synchronized their positions and exchanged opinions on the issue during the three-partite meeting on Thursday evening.

Kokoity and Abashidze have already expressed in Moscow their negative attitude to events in Georgia. Kokoity declared that negotiations between South Ossetian and Georgian authorities are possible only after the election of the "legitimate leadership in Georgia." "We are afraid of the repetition of the situation which obtained in early 1990s, when the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia followed the military coup," he said.

Head of Adzharia Ruslan Abashidze does not consider the incumbent authorities in Tbilisi legitimate either. He arrived in Moscow for the second time over the recent days. He assessed the events in Georgia as a "coup" and declared that people who came to power by force "do not have the right to governor other people." The leaders of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia also expressed concern over the situation in Georgia. Speaker of the Abkhazian parliament Nugzar Ashuba stressed that people who have come to power in Tbilisi earlier supported the forceful solution of the Abkhazian problem.

Moscow also is of the opinion that the way the leaders were replaced in Tbilisi is not irreproachable either.

"'The velvet revolution' term is unacceptable for Georgia. The situation in which the leadership was replaced there cannot satisfy anyone," Igor Ivanov told journalists during his visit to Warsaw.

But Moscow is interested in establishing stability in Georgia, which would meet the interests of Georgia itself, Russia and the entire Caucasus. "The crisis should be overcome as soon as possible and by a constitutional way," the Russian foreign minister pointed out.