Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that breaking economic ties with Georgia won’t solve such problems as Tbilisi’s intensified cooperation with NATO.
"Imagine, we severed ties and they still built the base," he said. "The biological laboratory is still working and what?" Lavrov noted, answering a question in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station.
"Do you think we should respond in order to show ourselves off? Do you suggest strangling Georgia? What for?" TASS cited the Russian foreign minister as saying.
He noted that Russia and Georgia have been actively developing tourism and trade. "Planes full of people are flying, tourists are coming," he stressed. "Trade is on the rise, in my view, we are Georgia’s key trade partner," he said, noting that events in the framework of civil societies are regularly held.
