Russia wants Georgia to sign non-use of force treaty with Abkhazia, South Ossetia

Nov 23, 2010 21:06 Moscow Time

Konstantin Kosachev. Photo: EPA

Georgia must sign an agreement on using no force against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the head of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev told journalists.

He said he did not believe that Mikhail Saakashvili was telling the truth when he said that Tbilisi would never use force against its breakaway republics.

“This is exactly what he was saying a few hours before his army invaded South Ossetia in 2008”, Kosachev said.

Georgian president gets Moldova's highest state award CHISINAU, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - Moldova’s Interim President Mihai Ghimpu has decorated visiting Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili with this country’s highest award – the Order of the Republic. Saakashvili, who effectuated his brief visit to Chisinau amid reports in the Moldovan media that Georgian officials and militants are closely involved in a preparation of possible post-election riots here, said Moldova has perfect chances for European integration. “No one else has better chances than Moldova,” Saakashvili said. “Your success will lead up to the /integration/ success of Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus, and we’ll follow you.” Moldovan analysts point out the connection between Saakashvili’s blitz and the early parliamentary election scheduled for next Sunday. Anatol Taranu, the director of the Center for Strategic Research and Political Consultations said the visit aimed to render support to the electoral victory of the rightwing Liberal Party and its leader Mihai Ghimpu. Taranu, a former member of parliament and a leading expert on consultations between the Moldovan government and the authorities of the unrecognized Dniester Republic, criticized the former Moldovan President, Vladimir Voronin, who refused to meet with Saakashvili. “Voronin should have thanked him because Saakashvili and Romania’s President Trajan Basescu came here several days before the 2005 election to support him,” Taranu said. “Saakashvili asked for a meeting to be held Thursday night but I refused to meet with him,” Voronin said earlier in the day. He added that his refusal should by no means be viewed as a demarche against Georgia as a country or the Georgian people. “Georgia is ruled by a regime spinning around one man’s personal power and exercising repressions against the opposition and free mass media,” Voronin said. “And if you take the attempt to subdue Abkhazia and South Ossetia through the use of force /in August 2008 –Itar-Tass/, it gave rise to a most dangerous international precedent in the resolution of territorial conflicts,” he said.