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Russia brushes off wreath-laying spat
Reuters, UK
Feb 17 2005
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister has played down a row
with ex-Soviet Georgia over a wreath-laying ceremony and says he
hopes the spat will not provoke "artificial" problems in his visit
there on Friday.
Georgia on Wednesday downgraded the trip by Sergei Lavrov from an
official, to a working, visit because he had declined an invitation
to lay a wreath at a memorial to Georgians killed in the war with
the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Lavrov, speaking to Russian journalists in Armenia, said the Abkhazia
issue in which Russia has a role as a mediator was too "emotionally
loaded" for him to make such a gesture.
"It is a conflict that cost the lives of innocent people on all sides
and, when one looks at its reasons and consequences, one that requires
quite a lot of commentary and explanation," he was quoted as saying
by Interfax news agency on Thursday.
Lavrov said his trip on Friday to Georgia -- the first by a Russian
foreign minister since a Western-leaning government swept to power
there -- had been well-planned. He said the Georgians had proposed
the wreath-laying at the last minute.
"We hope this episode will not create artificial problems for fruitful
negotiations in Tbilisi over key Russian-Georgian issues," he said.
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili said on Wednesday
that Lavrov's refusal to lay a wreath was "not a good-neighbourly or
appropriate gesture".
Lavrov's trip is aimed at helping to mend relations left tattered
by disputes between the ex-Soviet neighbours over breakaway regions
including Abkhazia and Georgia's demand that Moscow withdraw Soviet-era
military bases from Georgian soil.
Tens of thousands of people died and about 300,000 became refugees
in the 1992-93 separatist war in Abkhazia. Tbilisi says Russia armed
the Abkhaz rebels at the time and it accuses Moscow of meddling in
the conflict ever since.
Reuters, UK
Feb 17 2005
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister has played down a row
with ex-Soviet Georgia over a wreath-laying ceremony and says he
hopes the spat will not provoke "artificial" problems in his visit
there on Friday.
Georgia on Wednesday downgraded the trip by Sergei Lavrov from an
official, to a working, visit because he had declined an invitation
to lay a wreath at a memorial to Georgians killed in the war with
the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Lavrov, speaking to Russian journalists in Armenia, said the Abkhazia
issue in which Russia has a role as a mediator was too "emotionally
loaded" for him to make such a gesture.
"It is a conflict that cost the lives of innocent people on all sides
and, when one looks at its reasons and consequences, one that requires
quite a lot of commentary and explanation," he was quoted as saying
by Interfax news agency on Thursday.
Lavrov said his trip on Friday to Georgia -- the first by a Russian
foreign minister since a Western-leaning government swept to power
there -- had been well-planned. He said the Georgians had proposed
the wreath-laying at the last minute.
"We hope this episode will not create artificial problems for fruitful
negotiations in Tbilisi over key Russian-Georgian issues," he said.
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili said on Wednesday
that Lavrov's refusal to lay a wreath was "not a good-neighbourly or
appropriate gesture".
Lavrov's trip is aimed at helping to mend relations left tattered
by disputes between the ex-Soviet neighbours over breakaway regions
including Abkhazia and Georgia's demand that Moscow withdraw Soviet-era
military bases from Georgian soil.
Tens of thousands of people died and about 300,000 became refugees
in the 1992-93 separatist war in Abkhazia. Tbilisi says Russia armed
the Abkhaz rebels at the time and it accuses Moscow of meddling in
the conflict ever since.