Presidents of Georgia, Ukraine stay away from ex-Soviet gathering in Moscow
By MIKE ECKEL

AP Worldstream
Jul 21, 2006

The Western-leaning presidents of Georgia and Ukraine on Friday
decided not to attend an informal summit of leaders from a loose
grouping of 12 ex-Soviet nations in Moscow, highlighting divisions
within the Russian-dominated body.

Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili had wanted to meet with
President Vladimir Putin for a private meeting on the sidelines of
the Commonwealth of Independent States gathering to discuss rising
tensions in two breakaway regions and Russia’s support for separatists.

But Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said the president
would not go because the busy summit schedule would not allow for a
substantive meeting with Putin. The Kremlin had never confirmed that
Putin would hold separate talks with the Georgian president.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who like Saakashvili has
sought to lessen Russian influence and turn his country Westward,
also decided not to attend the two-day meeting. Spokeswoman Iryna
Gerashchenko said he would not attend because of Ukraine’s continuing
political turmoil, four months after parliamentary elections.

Georgia’s parliament this week called for the withdrawal of Russian
peacekeepers whose presence in the two breakaway regions _ South
Ossetia and Abkhazia _ is one of a host of irritants between Tbilisi
and its former imperial master.

The parliament resolution was widely seen as a bid to strengthen
Saakashvili’s position in talks with Putin.

Russian authorities, who accuse Georgia of planning provocations as a
pretext for a forceful takeover of South Ossetia, warned this week that
Moscow would use all means to protect its peacekeepers and citizens
in the two regions _ where most residents have Russian passports.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has been embroiled in political crisis since
Yushchenko’s Russian-backed presidential rival came out ahead in March
parliamentary elections. Yushchenko has been deliberating about how to
respond to a new pro-Russian coalition’s bid to make Viktor Yanukovych
prime minister.

Created amid the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the CIS has
been criticized by its own members as ineffective and the rise of
pro-Western leaders in Georgia and Ukraine and Moldova’s reorientation
toward the West has put further pressure on it.

Russia, meanwhile, has shored up ties with authoritarian Central
Asian nations.

Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, Sergei Prikhodko, was quoted
by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying that informal discussions on
reforming the CIS were among the items on the leaders’ agenda.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian, a close ally of Russia, will
also not attend the meeting because he has a cold, spokesman Viktor
Sogomonian said.

Turkmenistan’s President Saparmurat Niyazov was also staying away
from the summit, as he has repeatedly in the past. Tajik President
Emomali Rakhmonov’s plans were uncertain.

The informal summit was expected to include dinner Friday evening
at a waterside restaurant in an upscale Moscow suburb and a visit to
the track for a horse race dubbed the Russian President’s Cup.

___

Associated Press Writer Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili contributed to this
report from Tbilisi, Georgia.