Public centre of Georgian-Russian relations created
By Jamila Babayeva
A public centre for Georgian-Russian relations has been created in Tbilisi. The center is experimental in its format and both Georgian and Russian experts will be represented there, organization's executive board member Alexander Rusetski told journalists on March 3.
The agreement to create this organization was reached during the meeting of Georgian and Russian experts on March 3.
Zaza Abashidze will lead the center, while the Gorchakov Fund organization is one of the donors.
"The main mission of the centre will be the intensification of cultural, scientific and expert communications, working out of certain recommendations for state structures and development of cultural relations," Rusetski said.
Rusetski said two important projects have been planned. "One of them is a project for journalists whereby those from Moscow and Tbilisi will visit and their Georgian colleagues will leave for Russia on a return visit. The second project is a youth forum, focusing on discussions among young leaders on the future of Georgian-Russian relations," he said.
The Georgian-Russian conference 'Georgia and Russia: prospects of relations - 2014' is being held in Tbilisi on March 3-4. Georgian and Russian political scientists and experts are participating.
The meeting has been organized by the Council of Foreign and Defense policies of Russia, Gorchakov Fund and the Russian-Georgian public centre.
Georgia and Russia, its giant northern neighbor, have maintained no diplomatic relations since a brief war in 2008. Tbilisi broke off relations with Moscow in August 2008 when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over two rebel regions -South Ossetia and Abkhazia- and later recognized the regions. Georgia announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.