Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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PACE Prefers Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz
A special Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe delegation to study the consequences of the conflict in the Caucasus met for the first time yesterday in Moscow. The delegation members also spoke to members of the Federation Council and the Russian General Staff. The Russians tried to convince the delegation members to visit Tskhinvali before Tbilisi, but they were unsuccessful.
The delegation consisted of nine members, including reporters for Russia Luc van den Brande and Theodoros Pangolos and reporters for Georgia Matias Eorsi and Kastriot Islami. After meeting with Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn, first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Alexander Torshin and deputy chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Vasily Likhachev, delegation members met with Russian members of PACE, led by Konstantin Kosachev, who called the delegation’s travel plans “illogical.”
Deputy chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky explained to Kommersant that they wanted to avoid the delegation being “processed” by the Georgians before it saw South Ossetia. Speaker of the Duma Boris Gryzlov said that, if the delegation visited Tskhinvali via Vladikavkaz before Tbilisi, “it will be possible to turn the opinion not only of the delegation, but of the entire parliament, to the truth.”
Secretary of the Georgian National Security Council Alexander Lomaya stated that it was “absolutely logical to go to a region of a country after first arriving in the country.” The Georgians object to the fact that Slutsky and deputy commander of forces of the North Caucasus Military District of Russia for education Yury Dashkin will accompany the delegation in South Ossetia. Moscow and Tbilisi agree that it would be extremely difficult for any Georgian officials to accompany the delegation to South Ossetia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 23, 2008
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