INTERVIEW-Georgia PM wants economic boom, not Russia conflict
By Margarita Antidze
TBILISI, May 5 (Reuters) - Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze rejected Russian allegations that his country wanted conflict with Moscow, saying on Monday that it was not in Georgia's interest to destabilise its booming economy.
Russia's ties with Georgia have been strained for more than a decade by Moscow's support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that threw off Georgian rule in wars in the 1990s.
Tension over the two breakaway regions has intensified dramatically in recent weeks.
"It's clearly not in our interest to destabilise the situation and disrupt such amazing and rapid economic progress by having hostility on our territory," Gurgenidze said in an interview with Reuters.
"We are dealing with the Russian attempt to essentially legalise the results of the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1993 ... The time has come for urgent and outcome-oriented major international diplomatic action to de-escalate the situation."
Gurgenidze also denied Abkhazian claims to have shot down Georgian drones over the breakaway region on Sunday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected any blame for the situation and threw the charge back at Tbilisi on Monday, saying the Caucasus state was preparing to use force.
"The line Georgia is choosing undermines all treaties, in particular those that regulate the Georgia-Ossetia and Georgia-Abkhazia conflicts," he said in Moscow.
The two regions say they want independence from Georgia.
Russia approved new legal and economic links to the regions last month and increased the number of peacekeepers it keeps there, but stopped short of recognising them as states.
"Russia is experiencing extreme alarm at the fomenting confrontation, and as we can judge on the basis of more and more alarming facts, on an attempt to resolve these conflicts by force," Lavrov said.
COOLING THE RHETORIC
The chief of the Russian peacekeeping force in Abkhazia, General Sergei Chaban, tried to cool the rhetoric in comments to journalists on Sunday. "At this moment we assess the situation in the conflict zone as a complicated and tense one."
"All this alarms us, because if this situation is not changed one cannot exclude that the two sides can use force against one another," he said in a tent camp of Russian peacekeepers at the village of Okhurei near the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi.
"This tension is first of all caused by the fact that for a year and a half the two sides have not held any negotiations. Mutual recriminations have become common lately ... we also sometimes hear threats to one another.
He said there were 2,552 Russian peacekeeping troops there, and that some of the local population openly supported them.
"We are very glad they are present here. We are happy, this must be good for Abkhazia. We are proud they are here," a grey-haired Abkhaz resident in the nearby village of Reka told Reuters.
Other residents of the village showered flowers on Russian paratroopers mounted on armoured personnel carriers.
Smiling and in full combat gear, soldiers hugged Abkhazian children. Some put flowers into their bullet-proof vests. (Additional reporting by Chris Baldwin in Moscow and Ruslan Khashig in Sukhumi, editing by Tim Pearce)
TBILISI, May 5 (Reuters) - Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze rejected Russian allegations that his country wanted conflict with Moscow, saying on Monday that it was not in Georgia's interest to destabilise its booming economy.
Russia's ties with Georgia have been strained for more than a decade by Moscow's support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that threw off Georgian rule in wars in the 1990s.
Tension over the two breakaway regions has intensified dramatically in recent weeks.
"It's clearly not in our interest to destabilise the situation and disrupt such amazing and rapid economic progress by having hostility on our territory," Gurgenidze said in an interview with Reuters.
"We are dealing with the Russian attempt to essentially legalise the results of the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1993 ... The time has come for urgent and outcome-oriented major international diplomatic action to de-escalate the situation."
Gurgenidze also denied Abkhazian claims to have shot down Georgian drones over the breakaway region on Sunday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected any blame for the situation and threw the charge back at Tbilisi on Monday, saying the Caucasus state was preparing to use force.
"The line Georgia is choosing undermines all treaties, in particular those that regulate the Georgia-Ossetia and Georgia-Abkhazia conflicts," he said in Moscow.
The two regions say they want independence from Georgia.
Russia approved new legal and economic links to the regions last month and increased the number of peacekeepers it keeps there, but stopped short of recognising them as states.
"Russia is experiencing extreme alarm at the fomenting confrontation, and as we can judge on the basis of more and more alarming facts, on an attempt to resolve these conflicts by force," Lavrov said.
COOLING THE RHETORIC
The chief of the Russian peacekeeping force in Abkhazia, General Sergei Chaban, tried to cool the rhetoric in comments to journalists on Sunday. "At this moment we assess the situation in the conflict zone as a complicated and tense one."
"All this alarms us, because if this situation is not changed one cannot exclude that the two sides can use force against one another," he said in a tent camp of Russian peacekeepers at the village of Okhurei near the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi.
"This tension is first of all caused by the fact that for a year and a half the two sides have not held any negotiations. Mutual recriminations have become common lately ... we also sometimes hear threats to one another.
He said there were 2,552 Russian peacekeeping troops there, and that some of the local population openly supported them.
"We are very glad they are present here. We are happy, this must be good for Abkhazia. We are proud they are here," a grey-haired Abkhaz resident in the nearby village of Reka told Reuters.
Other residents of the village showered flowers on Russian paratroopers mounted on armoured personnel carriers.
Smiling and in full combat gear, soldiers hugged Abkhazian children. Some put flowers into their bullet-proof vests. (Additional reporting by Chris Baldwin in Moscow and Ruslan Khashig in Sukhumi, editing by Tim Pearce)
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