Russia for good relations with Georgia without Saakashvili -Medvedev

AZG DAILY #173, 26-09-2009

International

Update: 2009-09-26 00:30:47 (GMT +04:00)

RUSSIA FOR GOOD RELATIONS WITH GEORGIA WITHOUT SAAKASHVILI – MEDVEDEV

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday Moscow will build
good and friendly relations with Georgia, but he has no plans to
establish dialogue with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

"These [Russian-Georgian] relations will be good, warm, based on
hundreds of years of friendship," Medvedev told students and
professors from the University of Pittsburgh.

"I personally will not deal with president Saakashvili because he
committed a crime against his own people, and the people of South
Ossetia," he added.

Russia and Georgia were involved in a five-day war last August after
Tbilisi launched a military offensive on its former region of South
Ossetia.

Moscow recognized S. Ossetia and another Georgia’s breakaway region of
Abkhazia as independent states on August 26 last year, RIA Novosti
reports.