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Wednesday, 03 May 2006

GEORGIA\'S THREATS TO QUIT CIS OVER WINE BAN \"CHILDISH\" – ZOURABICHVILI

Published in News Digest

By empty (5/3/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Georgian leaders are being \"childish\" when they threaten to withdraw from the CIS in retaliation for Russia\'s ban on Georgian wine imports, Salome Zourabichvili, leader of the Path of Georgia party and former Georgian foreign minister, told journalists on Wednesday. \"We will quit the CIS in retaliation for your embargo on our wine. It is a childish approach and immature behavior which we need to get rid of,\" she said.
Georgian leaders are being \"childish\" when they threaten to withdraw from the CIS in retaliation for Russia\'s ban on Georgian wine imports, Salome Zourabichvili, leader of the Path of Georgia party and former Georgian foreign minister, told journalists on Wednesday. \"We will quit the CIS in retaliation for your embargo on our wine. It is a childish approach and immature behavior which we need to get rid of,\" she said. Georgia should have quietly withdrawn from the CIS a long time ago, Zourabichvili said. The Russian authorities described the CIS as \"a civilized form of divorce for the former Soviet republics,\" she said. Zourabichvili said she had repeatedly asked the Georgian government to considering terminating the country\'s membership in the CIS. \"I also discussed this issue with [Ukrainian Foreign Minister] Borys Tarasyuk. We agreed that neither Georgia nor Ukraine would be able to join NATO and the EU if they did not quit the CIS,\" she said. Georgia\'s withdrawal from the CIS will automatically halt the CIS peacekeeping operation in the breakaway province of Abkhazia, Zourabichvili said. (Interfax)
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