Moscow will be happy to welcome Georgia's president, PM - Putin

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russia will be happy to welcome in Moscow Georgia’s president or prime minister, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told an annual news conference on Thursday. Putin said Russia and Georgia managed to find common language during the talks on Russia’s joining WTO: Tbilisi did not oppose the process, and Moscow opened the Russian market for Georgian products. “That was a very good gesture,” he said adding Russia is ready to continue developing cooperation. The president said as Russia recognised independence of Abkhazia and of South Ossetia, the situation in the relations became complicate4d. “Honestly speaking, very complicated [to find a way out],” he said. “At the initial stage, we should at least restore direct contacts [between Tbilisi, Sukhum and Tskhinval], not to say ‘no’ in the very beginning,” he said. Putin said the situation in Georgia, which cased its split, resembles the current events in Ukraine: “the punitive operations, the military actions.” He said at the negotiations with the then President Michael Saakashvili he warned against military actions, but he would not listen. Speaking about former Georgian President, Putin said he was now on the run. “He is pushed back and forward, he would not receive a working visa to the U.S., as far as I know,” he said. Read more