Interfax's Interview

 "We are continuing to call on Tbilisi to sign legally-binding agreements with Sukhumi and Tskhinvali on the non-use of force and security guarantees. This would be a real step forward" in settling the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South Ossetian conflicts, Russian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Grigory Karasin said in an interview with Interfax.

 In this light, former Georgian President "Eduard Shevardnadze's statements that Sukhumi and Tskhinvali are refusing to maintain dialogue with support from Moscow are lies from beginning to end," Karasin said.

 "Everything is just the opposite, and our Georgian partners are perfectly aware of this. Russia's mediating and peacekeeping functions will continue," he said.

 Moscow is worried by Georgia's accelerated militarization, including its efforts toward beefing up its military presence near the Abkhaz and South Ossetian borders, he said.

 "It is difficult to get rid of doubts about Tbilisi's true intentions. For instance, Georgia is reinforcing its military unit in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge, where the situation is already extremely tense after the UN Security Council recorded Georgia's gross violation of the 1994 Moscow Accords on the separation of sides and ceasefire last year," Karasin said.

 "In the Abkhaz area, the construction of a large military base in Senaki is nearing completion and a military airfield is being reconstructed, and heavy military equipment is also being concentrated in the Zugdidi district," Karasin said.

 "A similar situation is near the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone," he said.
 "While the Georgian leadership is saying it is seeking to peacefully resolve the conflicts, it is a question why the Georgian leadership is concentrating armaments near the conflict zones," he said.

 "Sukhumi and Tskhinvali are following Georgia's military preparations with alarm," he said.

 "After the tragedy that happened in the early 1990s, the people's desire to ensure peaceful and safe life is quite understandable and logical," he said.

 Grigory Karasin also slammed a recent appeal by former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze for an international boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
 Shevardnadze argued that Russia's policy on Abkhazia and South Ossetia is similar to the Soviet policy on Afghanistan that triggered the war of 1979-88 in that country.

 "I am forced to admit, though I regret this, that the politician [Shevardnadze] has lost his sense of moderation. Experience and wisdom are normally used to help achieve progress and look for constructive solutions. All that ultimatums do is to annoy and fan emotions," Karasin told Interfax.

 "It is absurd to compare the current conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the Afghanistan situation of 1980," Karasin said.

 "It is simply politically indecent to throw in the issue of the 2014 Olympic Games with a clear purpose. Let's abandon methods of intimidation. They will hardly be helpful," he said.

 "Georgia's conflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which remain unsettled, are not the consequence of Russian policies but the result of nationalistic and provocative actions by the Georgian leadership at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s," the deputy minister said.

 "That is what forced the Abkhaz and Ossetians to take up arms in order to protect themselves," he said.

 "Alas, it is unfortunately far from possible to put into practice Shevardnadze's idea that the Georgians would be able to reach agreement both with the Abkhaz and with the Ossetians directly, without any mediation," Karasin said.

 Karasin also denied Shevardnadze's point that the fact that there are Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia means there is a Russian military presence in the two regions.

 "Here we have an obvious replacement of notions. By decision of the Heads of State Council of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], a Commonwealth Joint Peacekeeping Force has been deployed in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict since 1994," Karasin said.

 The force's personnel is entirely Russian.

 "Sad though it is, [Shevardnadze] has forgotten that it is the achievement of the force that, for many years, peace and order have been maintained in the region, there exists a secure regime for the return of refugees and patrolling programs are being conducted jointly with UN observers," Karasin said.

 UN Security Council resolutions, including Resolution #1781, the latest on the Abkhaz conflict, credit the peacekeepers with playing an important stabilizing role, he said. 

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