RUSSIA: Russian and Georgian foreign ministers hold talks aimed at easing a crisis in relations

Russian and Georgian foreign ministers met in Moscow on Wednesday (November 1), the first such high level talks since last month's spying row that has led to the worst crisis in relations between the two countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Georgian counterpart Gela Bezhuashvili, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday (October 31). He flew to Russia via neighbouring Azerbaijan because Moscow has severed direct air links. "We meet not at the best period in Russian and Georgian relations, and I expect that our discussions today would shed light on what is necessary to do to help mend relations and improve the situation," said Lavrov in his opening remarks at the start of the talks. For his part, Bezhuashvili said both sides were aware that the current state of relations needed to improve. "We all agree that the current situation in relations between two neighbours is not normal," he said. Russia has severed transport links with Georgia in a row fuelled by smouldering tensions over Tbilisi's drive to join NATO and the European Union and disputes about two separatist regions of Georgia which are supported by Moscow. The row between Tbilisi and Moscow, sparked initially by Tbilisi's brief arrest in September of four Russian soldiers on spying charges, has dragged their already-fraught relations to an unprecedented low. Moscow has ignored Western calls to lift its sanctions and rebuffed concerns expressed after it deported hundreds of Georgians living in Russia. Many analysts fear the standoff could be building towards a new crisis when people in South Ossetia -- a tiny strip of land near Georgia's border with Russia -- vote on Nov. 12 to confirm their de facto independence. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Georgian breakaway region, shook off Tbilisi's rule in fighting in the 1990s. Moscow helps prop them up. Most residents are Russian passport holders and Russian peacekeeping troops are based there.

ITN Source | November 2, 2006

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