Moscow – Russia’s Foreign Ministry belied words of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili who said that he was given the guarantee by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would never recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement that said Tbilisi, administrative capital of Georgia, was not given the guarantee that neither Abkhazia nor South Ossetia would be recognized. Putin did not give Saakashvili in his February 21 meeting in Moscow a guarantee of any kind, it said in the statement: "Efforts to dictate Russia to take a particular position and adopt certain political games are creating a terrible image of us all." Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, addressed the member of Duma, lower chamber of the Russian parliament, and said that Russia would like to improve its relations with Georgia. "We would like to see the consequences of our efforts to improve the relations; however, we cannot sometimes see them."
"Putin gave me his net word that Moscow would never recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Saakashvili told Kommersant on Tuesday. (Agency Caucasus)
