Russian PM optimistic about relations with Georgia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday, Aug 4, he looked optimistic about the prospects of bilateral relations between Russia and Georgia five years after a brief war between the two countries.

“In this regard, I'm a total optimist. I'm convinced that everything will be fine. Our nations aren't enemies,” Medvedev said, according to RIA Novosti.

“Of course, the conflict didn't help but it wasn't based on deep-running disagreements. Again, that was a criminal mistake of certain leaders. But these days the situation is indeed a bit different. The country's new leadership that was brought in by the political and constitutional reforms is taking a more pragmatic stance... We welcome that,” Medvedev said.

Russia and Georgia severed diplomatic ties in 2008 after Moscow recognized de-facto independent Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states following a brief military conflict over South Ossetia.

The Georgian Dream coalition led by current Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili won the October 1, 2012, parliamentary election, forcing the United National Movement, which had ruled Georgia since the Rose Revolution in 2003 and is led by President Mikheil Saakashvili, into the opposition.

The elections were vital in the light of a law passed in 2010 transferring the majority of the president’s executive powers to the prime minister when Saakashvili’s second term ends in the fall of 2013.