By empty (7/21/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, has said that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili\'s refusal attend the informal CIS summit starting on Friday in Moscow shows Tbilisi\'s intention to let tensions in Russian- Georgian relations further escalate. \"The participation in the summit offers possibilities to state the positions dear to Tbilisi both in formal and informal settings and to be heard. However, Saakashvili chose to pass over the opportunity, which proves that Georgia has a stake in a confrontation with Russia, which may lay the basis for a military resolution of the Georgian-South Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts,\" he told journalists.
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, has said that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili\'s refusal attend the informal CIS summit starting on Friday in Moscow shows Tbilisi\'s intention to let tensions in Russian- Georgian relations further escalate. \"The participation in the summit offers possibilities to state the positions dear to Tbilisi both in formal and informal settings and to be heard. However, Saakashvili chose to pass over the opportunity, which proves that Georgia has a stake in a confrontation with Russia, which may lay the basis for a military resolution of the Georgian-South Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts,\" he told journalists. Saakashvili\'s refusal to attend the informal CIS summit is another proof of the fact that \"Tbilisi keeps betting on loud-voice diplomacy, when claims and reproaches are presented unilaterally as public statements for the media,\" he said. \"Tbilisi needs a small victorious war, and unfortunately everything is moving into that direction,\" the Russian senator said. (Interfax)