Russian foreign minister says he hoped to visit Georgian PM’s grave

RTR Russia TV, Moscow
17 Feb 05

[Presenter] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is on a visit
to Armenia, today reacted to criticism which the Georgian leadership
had levelled against him on the eve of his trip to Georgia.

Tbilisi expressed dissatisfaction over Moscow’s refusal to include
in the agenda a visit to a memorial to Georgian soldiers, killed in
battles for the country’s territorial integrity.

Here is what Sergey Lavrov said on this score.

[Lavrov] The memorial to those fallen in the course of the wars
in Abkhazia and Ossetia, I mean a visit to it would, undoubtedly,
require complex political commentaries. We grieve for all the victims
of these wars, on both sides. I would particularly like to note
that my plans, my personal plans, included a visit to the grave of
[the recently-assassinated Georgian Prime Minister] Zurab Zhvania,
to pay homage to his memory, to lay flowers on his grave. He is a man
who has done a very great deal in order for the Abkhazian and South
Ossetian conflicts to be settled exclusively by peaceful means.