RIA Novosti, Russia
Aug 20 2004

PRESIDENT PUTIN INSISTS ON COMPROMISE IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

SOCHI, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin
argues that conflicts in the South Caucasus are to be settled through
compromise.

“Awareness of a need for normal relations between people who live in
the region will hopefully overcome political ambitions, and we will
solve these problems on the basis of compromise,” he told a Sochi
news conference after a meeting with Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan.

The Russian President described the situation in the South Caucasus
as complicated. “We have inherited a lot of conflicts,” he said,
“These conflicts are muffled, but burst out here and there, which is
a concern to us.”

Mr. Putin said that Russia was ready to mediate in and guarantee the
results of a settlement of the lingering Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Russia is ready to act as a mediator and a guarantor if there is
demand for our efforts and the parties to the conflict are willing
[to let Russia in],” he said.

“We have discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. No breakthrough
decisions have been made – today’s discussion was just about search
for additional measures to maintain the dialogue,” the Russian
president added.

He emphasized that, importantly, “the sides have revealed their
willingness to seek a compromise.” According to Putin, both Armenian
and Azeri presidents would embrace a compromise.

He also said he intended to visit Armenia.

“Robert Kocharyan has invited me to visit Armenia. I will pay a visit
early next year, the exact date will be adjusted through the Foreign
Ministry,” he remarked.

As to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, the only possible option,
according to the Russian President, is to negotiate.

“To sit at the table to negotiate is the only possible way out,” he
said.

“One has to be good at negotiating and to have enough political will
to deliver on what has been agreed upon, [not to let it happen when]
a commission agrees on something in the morning, and on the same
night officials of the same state that is represented in the
commission dismiss the agreement,” Mr. Putin said.

The Russian President said he hoped all participants in this process
would reveal enough political maturity and solidity in their peoples’
best interests.

According to him, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili also
regarded a decision to cancel South Ossetian autonomy as a mistake.

“As we talked with Mr. Saakashvili, [he said] he thought these
decisions about South Ossetia, made in the early 1990s, had been a
mistake. So I said nothing unexpected,” Vladimir Putin said in
comment on his remark about the Georgian-Ossetian conflict at
yesterday’s news conference on his meeting with Ukrainian President
Leonid Kuchma.

In those remarks, Mr. Putin described Georgia’s decision to cancel
autonomous status for South Ossetia and Abkhazia as “stupid.”