Stir in Georgia around Abashidze-Karasin format

Today Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili made a statement about the need to clarify the format of the Karasin-Abashidze dialogue and the formal issuance of it beyond the scopes of political issues.

He did it in response to the statement on March 16th by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin about the increase of provocative anti-Russian rhetoric by foreign public officials on the international stage. "The most annoying thing is that the rhetoric is declared by Georgian officials, politicians, ministers and even by the President,'' the Russian diplomat complained.

"Grigory Karasin should answer the appropriate response to Zurab Abashidze... The Prague format is needed to be clarified clearly so that we know that there are no political themes or what the rhetoric of the Georgian side should be there. These statements should have an adequate defendant in the same format as Prague,'' Sputnik Georgia reports.

After that, a number of Georgian politicians made statements today about the usefulness of the Abashidze-Karasin format for the normalization of relations between Russia and Georgia.
One of the first was a special representative of Prime Minister of the Republic on the settlement of relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze.

"This is the format of the informal dialogue, where no one undertakes obligations to formalize documents. The dialogue is conducted in a free, informal format. Therefore, when the issue about our agreements arises, this is the wrong issue, because we cannot reach any agreement in this format," he said.

"However, due to the fact that this is an informal dialogue, personal opinions and comments may be expressed... This is a difficult dialogue and sharp discussion often takes place that is accepted practice for an informal dialogue format,'' Abashidze said.

Similar statements were made by a number of ministers, including Defense Minister Tina Khidasheli."The dialogue is crucial and absolutely mandatory. This is the only opportunity to save our country in peace and safety," she said.

The head of the Institute for Strategy Management, Peter Mamradze, explained in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, that it was Margvelashvili's "complete inexperience and his inadequacy as a President." He even stated that it is necessary to give Karasin a fitting rebuff and appropriate responses. These ''worthy'' answers appeared in our relations with Russia. It is an absolutely anti-political statement," he complained.

"Moreover, Karasin spoke to reporters, not during talks with Abashidze, but the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of may make such statements. It is up to him what he tells journalists,'' the expert added.

A member of the Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations, Maksim Shevchenko, tied the discussion with the fact that "elections are to take place in Georgia this fall, and Russia is one of the important factors in the political struggle."

"Any party that publicly announces its sympathy for Russia won't have any political prospects. Russia is popular in Georgia in the cultural sense, but it is also extremely unpopular politically. I think it's just a public shakedown, not an anti-Russian statement. Of course, the ''Georgian Dreamers" are one of the formats to achieve popularity among voters," he assumed.