Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s first meeting with new Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev in early June now promises to be a fiery affair. Armed with the findings of a UN report that holds Russia responsible for shooting down a Georgian drone over the breakaway region of Abkahzia, Saakashvili has announced that Tbilisi will use "all means and all ways" to try to push Russian peacekeepers out of the conflict zone.
The two men are scheduled to parlay at a June 6-7 meeting of CIS leaders in St. Petersburg, Russia. Speaking during a televised session of Georgia’s National Security Council on May 27, Saakashvili stated that Russia could no longer be trusted to act as an impartial peace-broker in Abkhazia. Moscow, he insisted, "pretends to play at peacekeeping" in Abkhazia and such misbehavior "annuls this peacekeeping role."
"It is absolutely clear that Georgia cannot remain in such a situation when we all, together with our international partners, are sitting and waiting for [a new] provocation," he said. Saakashvili did not specify precisely how Tbilisi would try to overhaul Abkhazia’s peacekeeping format. [More]
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