The main barrier in the relations of Georgia with Russia is that Russia does not respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic, said Georgia Prime Minister Irakli Garybashvili in the air of the first channel of the public broadcaster of Georgia.
According to him, Russia does not respect the sovereignty of Georgia, its unity and continues the occupation of the territories. “This is the main barrier in our relationship,” he noted.
He noted that in 2012, with the coming to power of the Georgian Dream Party, there were no contacts with Russia, including in the economic and cultural direction.
Garybashvili also reminded that the only thing then the President of Saakashvili was trying to achieve, at least the opening of the Russian market to restore trade and economic relations.
“For this purpose, the previous authorities even introduced a visa-free regime for Russia, and certainly supported Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and in return we did not get anything,” he said, reproaching the previous authorities in the transfer and sale of many strategic assets and objects to Russian companies.
According to him, with the coming to power of the “Georgian Dream”, on the part of European and American partners there were recommendations and advice so that Georgia could achieve de euscations with Russia and, as he believes it happened.
Premier indicated that in the framework of the current format of the informal dialogue of Georgia and Russia “Abashidze – Karasin” made a lot of practical steps, noting that there is no progress in the political direction.
“In the political direction, we have no shifts regarding Russia, this is a rather complicated question. In relation to Russia, our main claim or the main problem is the territorial integrity of our country,” he summed up.