Ex-Russian president hopes Georgia will recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Unlike their predecessors, the current leaders in Tbilisi have been showing “pragmatism,” Dmitry Medvedev says

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed hopes that Georgia will “show pragmatism” and recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The ex-president, who is now the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, made the remarks in an interview with RT and TASS on Friday.

The interview marked the 15-year anniversary of Russia recognizing the breakaway formerly Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the aftermath of the five-day war between Moscow and Tbilisi. Medvedev, who was president at the time, ordered the country’s troops to intervene after Georgia, led by Mikhail Saakashvili, sent troops to South Ossetia and attacked Russian peacekeepers that had been stationed there since the 1990s.

However, the current Georgian leadership has been displaying a fair share of “pragmatism,” Medvedev stated, expressing hopes that Tbilisi will ultimately recognize the breakaway republics as well.

“I hope that the Georgian leaders will have the pragmatism to recognize the reality, including the existence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent subjects of international law, and build relations with them, because historically they are still very close peoples,” he said.

Read more

The ex-president refused to evaluate the current state of relations between Georgia and its former regions, stating that this was for the participants of the “political triangle” to do themselves. “Although we are watching this closely. Anything can happen in politics, pragmatism is very important,” he added.

This pragmatism has allowed Tbilisi to develop ties with Moscow, Medvedev pointed out, despite the calls of a few “political freaks” in Georgia to destroy the country’s relations with Russia, he noted. 

“The current generation of leaders and the political forces in power in Georgia, in any case, are marked by pragmatism, this cannot be ignored. That is why we are now developing relations with them, we allowed the entry of Georgian citizens into Russia without visas again, that is why the planes began to fly,” Medvedev stated, referring to President Vladimir Putin’s decision earlier this year to lift an air travel ban and visa regime with Georgia, measures that were originally imposed back in 2019 in the wake of anti-Russia protests in Tbilisi.