Azernews.Az

By Jamila Babayeva

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said he stands for improvement of relations with Russia.

"Georgia should improve its relations with all," he told journalists on April 16.

He said Georgia should make every effort for recovering its relations with Russia, adding "it is very important for us".

Garibashvili said the incidents similar to those that happened on April 15 when Georgian journalists were detained, harm relations with Russia.

"I am outraged by the kidnapping of Georgian journalists. Hopefully, they will soon be released. Of course, such facts are harming the process of normalization of relations with Russia, but I hope that this problem will be resolved quickly," he noted.

Russian border guards detained the journalists of TV3 - Bella Zakidze, operator Vakhor Lekiashvili and technical officer Michael Mihoev for violating the so-called South Ossetian border. Currently, the detained journalists are in Tskhinvali.

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.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili in turn sees no reason to wage war with Russia at this stage.

"At this stage, we do not plan any open confrontation with Russia," he said. "I see no open threats. Despite that we had similar situations in 2008 to Ukraine's events in 2014, we do not see a current threat. I believe there must be more stability and more unity in Georgia's external and internal policies to remove the threats."

Margvelasvili said the Georgian side has always been trying to convince Moscow that the violation of Georgian airspace does not bestow on it any great honor.

He noted that unfortunately, these facts are regular. "I do not associate this with a specific event as such facts occur constantly. We protest this," he concluded.