By empty (1/23/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Georgia\'s attitude to Russia is guided by reality, Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili said. \"Russia has increased natural gas prices, blown up pipelines and arranged acts of sabotage and that is why our attitude to Russia will be based on reality,\" Okruashvili told journalists in Gudauri where meetings between embassy representatives of NATO member states and the Georgian Defense Ministry are taking place. Georgia will inform foreign diplomats about reforms in the defense sector at the meeting.

By empty (1/23/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Georgian authorities are using the situation surrounding gas and electricity deliveries from Russia to distract attention from other problems affecting the country, chairman of the Igor Georgadze charity foundation in Georgia Irina Sarishvili- Chanturiya said. \"The events are profitable to for the Georgian authorities who are using the explosions to distract attention away from the real problems facing the country,\" she told Interfax on Monday. \"Armenia, which has also suffered from these explosions, has not echoed the comments of the Georgian authorities,\" she said.

By empty (1/23/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A Sunday statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry commenting on the interrupted gas and power supplies to Georgia has been strongly criticized by Georgian Speaker Nino Burjanadze. The Georgian authorities are indignant at the ministry statement, Burjanadze said. \"The Russian Foreign Ministry\'s use of such words as hysteria and bacchanalia is outrageous, especially if they are applied to pronouncements by the president of a sovereign state,\" the speaker said on the Ekho Moskvy radio on Sunday.