Zakharova: Moscow ready to restore diplomatic relations with Georgia and waiting for Tbilisi's steps

Moscow is ready to restore diplomatic ties with Tbilisi as much as the Georgian side is ready. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this at a briefing, TASS reported.

“We are ready to restore them, we are ready to go as far as the Georgian side is ready to go. There are no restrictions for us here,” she said.

Zakharova put the responsibility for breaking diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia on the third president Mikheil Saakashvili. He made this decision after the August 2008 war, when Russia recognized the independence of Georgia's Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that now the situation has changed and the current Georgian authorities are giving them “positive signals.” This is what Zakharova calls the statement of Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili - as part of his election campaign in the fall of 2024, he offered to apologize for the war to the Ossetians. The statement, which effectively absolved Russia of responsibility for those events, sparked a flurry of outrage in Georgian society.

“We hope that they [the signals] will translate into concrete steps to normalize Georgia's relations with Abkhazia, with South Ossetia,” Zakharova said.

In recent weeks, Moscow has been increasingly talking about the readiness to restore diplomatic relations with Georgia. Both Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Galuzin and the Russian president's press secretary have spoken out on the issue.

There was no reaction from the Georgian Foreign Ministry and members of the government. The only one who commented on the topic was Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili. He said that Tbilisi would be ready to restore diplomatic relations with Moscow only after the issue of the occupied territories is resolved.

Reprinted from https://www.newsgeorgia.ge/