Noghaideli meets Putin

Relations between Georgia and Russia are poor and this is no secret, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Zurab Noghaideli, a former Georgian PM and current leader of opposition party Movement for Fair Georgia, on December 23 in Moscow. Relations between Tbilisi and Moscow are at “their lowest level in history”, the Russian PM said, according to RIA Novosti.

Premier Putin blamed Georgia for worsening the relations between the two countries. “This is the result of official Tbilisi’s policy. I am sure that if this policy had been different the tragic events which took place in Abkhazia and South Ossetia a year and a half ago would not have happened,” the agency quoted Putin as saying. He suggested that the Georgian leadership is currently conducting the “same policy”. “The clearest proof of this anti-people policy is the destruction of the World War II memorial in Kutaisi,” Putin said. The Georgian and Russian people are tied by “thousands of invisible threads, mutual interests and mutual history,” the Russian PM said, adding that one of such thread was the WWII memorial.

Noghaideli also said at the meeting that the demolition of the memorial was linked with the policy of Georgia’s President. “Saakashvili was pursuing the political aim of destroying the threads linking Georgia and Russia,” the former Prime Minister said. Later in a televised comment to Rustavi 2, Noghaideli said Russia would not change its position towards Georgia. “It is our own job to unite our country with the Abkhazian and the South Ossetian people,” he said.

Georgian officials criticised Noghaideli over the visit, which is his fourth since October. “Everyone knows who carried out a military aggression in Georgia and why, and what plans he had in terms of Russian-Georgian relations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said at a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conference. “We all know that this idea was Putin's. Consequently the fact that someone negotiates with Premier Putin speaks for itself,” Kalandadze stated.

Member of the Movement for Fair Georgia Petre Mamradze downplayed the official criticism. He said that President Saakashvili’s “unwise” foreign policy had led the country to “tragic” results last year. “It is very difficult to find a way out of this situation. Since last year the Movement for Fair Georgia has been saying that the only solution is through dialogue with Russia.”

As for the criticism of the authorities and media that Noghaideli did not ask any “critical” questions of Putin during their meeting, Mamradze said that “diplomacy never starts with critical questions.” “Dialogue should be held in the manner of dialogue,” he told The Messenger, adding that during its dialogue with Russia the Movement for Fair Georgia puts the interests of the Georgian people “above anything else.”

Some analysts suggest that it is up to society to judge if Noghaideli’s meeting with Putin was right or wrong. “It is the business of Zurab Noghaideli and his party whether he visits Russia or not,” analyst Zurab Abashidze suggested, adding however that dialogue should only concern Georgia’s de-occupation. “Unfortunately, Georgia’s de-occupation will not start without Russia, because its troops are deployed on Georgia’s territory and without dialogue with Moscow it will be impossible to withdraw those troops,” he suggested.