Saakashvili speaks to Ekho Mosckvy radio

Saakashvili speaks to Ekho Mosckvy radio

Monday, July 11

There are no interstate relations between Georgia and Russia as far as Moscow does not recognize the Georgian government, Georgian borders and a ceasefire agreement, President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili told Ekho Moskvy radio station on Friday. “Moscow says that it will not even hold serious negotiations,” Saakashvili noted “moreover, the representatives of the Russian leadership have stopped calling us a country – they call us a ‘territorial-ethnic entity’, it is an old soviet, painful term,” he said, adding however, that inter-people relations still exist. “There are air flights with tourists coming to Georgia,” he noted.

Speaking about the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, Saakashvili said the two leaders have a lot in common. “We belong to one generation, mutual courses, even one profession. However, I think that we have differences in the main thing – Medvedev does not make any decisions. He is very well chosen. Meanwhile here we (not me personally, but all of us) are able to agree on things, we make decisions. While, on the Russian side there is only one person, who is potentially able to negotiate, however he will not agree with anyone, this is Vladimir Putin,” Saakashvili said.

When asked if he would have changed anything if he could go back to August 2008, Saakashvili said that in order to do things differently, both countries involved would have to change something in their actions. “When there is one country, especially a big one, which exceeds your power much more, there is almost no chance for a small country to avoid it. The Georgian president said Moscow had “preplanned” a conflict with Georgia. “Head of the Russian General Staff warned NATO at the NATO-Russia commission about a possible war in spring 2008. Then they bombed us several times, checking our reaction,” Saakashvili told Ekho Mosckvy “everything was very well planned.”

The Georgian president talked about the alleged terrorist acts carried out or planned to be carried out on the Georgian territory, saying that Georgia has a specific suspect - Russian officer Borisov. “I’ve sent a letter to President Medvedev...This issue was raised by leaders of Western states at the meetings with him. Now we are waiting for the reaction, because the letter has already been sent. Of course he did not answer,” Saakashvili noted.

As for Russian law enforcers’ claims that several tens of warriors have entered Russia from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, Saakashvili said that now “everything is transparent” in Georgia. “Any rotation of armed forces in Georgia is controlled by European observers. This is part of our agreement with the EU,” he noted “We have created total transparency in order not to repeat 2008 when there were questions about who did what,” he stated.

Saakashvili touched upon the issue of political processes in Georgia, saying that if his opponent had won presidential elections in 2008 it would have been the “end of the world.” “Why? because it was a person who said that if he’d win, he would abolish the presidential post in two years, his programme was to live with some new mentality. He used to get humiliated at any question about his views on budget deficit or about unemployment,” the President said, referring apparently to Levan Gachechiladze.

The President commented on the detention of photojournalists, including his personal photographer, on espionage charges. Saakashvili said he did not know about the details until half an hour before the arrest took place. He said there were cases when his relatives were also under investigation. “As it concerns my personal photographer, I was very upset and still I am very, very upset. But my personal feelings are secondary in this case,” he said.

05:29 12/07/2011ALL NEWS

12/7 Tass 8

MOSCOW, July 12 (Itar-Tass) — Leaders of four parties represented in the lower house of Russian parliament will by tradition meet with President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss election campaign themes.

The ruling party United Russia thoroughly prepared for the discussion on the parliamentary elections due in December, the deputy secretary of the party’s general council presidium, Yuri Shuvalov, told Itar-Tass.

“The elections will take place in the post-crisis period, in compliance with the new election legislation providing support for small parties that as we believe will be able to make their names heard and perhaps, will implement the law on receiveing one-two mandates,” he said.

“We will speak about the election control from the point of view of creating equal conditions for all parties to monitor the voting. Transparency of the elections and registration of all possible violations are very important for us,” Shuvalov said.

He also assured that “if some initiatives that should be fixed legislatively emerge during the dialogue with the president, we have an opportunity to do this as there is an autumn session ahead.”

State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov plans “to focus on protection of young people from a drug trafficking threat emanating from our southern borders and unfortunately, making progress.” In this regard he reiterated that child protection was the central issue of the president’s state-of-the-nation address.

The vice speaker of the lower house of parliament, Ivan Melnikov, who is the first deputy chairman of the Communist Party’s central committee, supposed that the president will as always set the tone of the meeting himself. “Probably, we will begin from the reasons of the tragedy on the Volga Rive (where the cruise ship Bulgaria sank on July 10 killing 58 people).

Melnikov, who will accompany KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov to the meeting with the president, underlined that “in fact, this will be the last meeting, when some compromise decisions can be taken, as this will already be late to do in autumn.”

The Liberal Democratic Party represented by its leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and head of the party’s State Duma faction, Igor Lebedev, will touch upon “better living conditions for Russian people in the country and abroad, regulation of migration processes and customs policy as well as the housing construction.”

The LDPR will also oppose any amendments to be made to the election legislation ahead of the elections.

Just Russia speaks against any amendments, especially those made at the regional level, the party’s leader, Sergei Mironov said. Among other issues for discussion he proposed social welfare and offshore zones.

04:34 12/07/2011ALL NEWS

12/7 Tass 47

MOSCOW, July 12 (Itar-Tass) — Most An-24 planes may be put out of service beginning from January 2012, if Russia’s air carriers that use them on regular flights fail to modernize them, the Transport Ministry’s press service told Itar-Tass.

On Monday, President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the ministry to consider the issue of putting An-24 planes out of service on regular flights following the emergency landing of the An-24 plane on Ob River in West Siberia that killed seven people and injured another 30.

“At the same time there is no talk about cancellation of flights of this type of aircraft. They can be used on non-regular charter flights,” the source said.

The Ministry underlined that all An-24 should be re-equipped with aircraft anti-collision systems.

“If Russia’s air carriers using such planes fail to modernize them, these planes will be put out of service on regular flights,” the source said.

At present, there are 99 An-24 planes in the fleet of Russia’s air companies.