Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Russia attaches great importance to the upcoming Geneva talks due to the election of the new Georgian President, Russian Foreign Ministry said on October 31.

"Considering the October 27 elections in Georgia, the upcoming consultations will hold great importance in determining future prospects of the Geneva process," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

"The noisy propaganda campaign on the state border of Georgia with South Ossetia, launched in September-October of this year, prompted us to think about the true intentions of Tbilisi at the meetings in Geneva," it added.

The ministry reiterated that "Russia's priority is conclusion of agreements on the non-use of force between Georgia and its former autonomies -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia."

"The Russian delegation is going to once again draw attention to the draft joint declaration on non-use of force presented in 2012, the adoption of which would contribute to the rapprochement of Sukhumi, Tbilisi and Tskhinvali, instead of the many-year-long deadlock," the statement reads.

It says that "in order to reduce tensions on the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia" it will be necessary to agree with Georgia on systematic steps to inform the local population about the crossing of borders.

Also, the ministry reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgia's Special Representative for Relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze discussed the possibility of holding the next meeting of representatives of the two countries in November in a telephone conversation.

The subject of the conversation was the current state of Russian-Georgian relations, as well as the schedule of the upcoming talks.

Answering a question about the possibility of progress in negotiations during the Geneva talks considering Georgian elections, Karasin said that he cannot predict anything.

"It's a sensitive and delicate matter, and it is necessary to meet; in particular, we will work on a joint statement of the participants of the Geneva talks on non-use of force," Karasin said.

The first meeting of the official representatives of Russia and Georgia was held as part of settling bilateral relations in Geneva on December 14, 2012. Afterwards, the discussions continued in Prague. The sides agreed that such meetings will take place again in the next 2 or 3 months.

Georgia and its giant northern neighbor Russia have had 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.