The President of Georgia responded to the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. The Head of State noted that diplomatic relations with the government of Russia have ceased in 2008, when Russia began occupation of Georgia. According to Mikheil Saakashvil, Georgia has already made steps in order to ease the entrance, without any obstacles into Georgia, for citizens of Russia including ethnic Georgians as well as businessmen. As for the restoring of diplomatic relations with Russia, according to the President, it is in review and will start when Moscow officially decides to de-occupy Georgia and recognize its sovereignty.

“Diplomatic relations with Russia automatically ceased after the actions of Russia in 2008, when it stopped recognizing Georgia as a sovereign and democratic state. This relationship will be restored as soon as Russia once again recognizes Georgia within its internationally recognized borders. Ceasing this relationship was not our initiative. This happened as a result of the actions of Russia and restoring it is in the hands of Russia. However, if they are ready to restore relations with Georgia, this has to happen, not on a level of declaration, but they should do what is necessary. Regarding the visa free travel; we made a decision to grant visa free travel because first of all, many citizens of Russia are of Georgian descent, including the refugees, a large part of who are still in Russia, and by this decision we will ease their travel to Georgia. On the other hand, we did it for the part of the Russian society, which is interested in travelling to Georgia for the purpose of tourism, investing and seeing friends and relatives. From our side, this was clear proof of an expression of the openness and firmness of our society as well as clear proof of our security. We are always ready, without any terms in advance, for beginning a dialogue regarding a full scale deregulation of our relationship with Russia, which will be based on de-occupation of Georgia, recognizing its territorial integrity, and returning home the half a million refugees who cannot go home because of ethnic cleansing administered by Russia and the attempt of its armed forces and government to legalize the results of this ethnic cleansing. Despite the fact that all of this was initiated by Russia, we are ready to sit down at the negotiation table with a person, who will be a real leader of Russia,  in order to turn back and better the relationship, regardless of who will be in the government of Russia and who wins the Presidential elections. In the past, Russia chose who they wanted to sit down with to negotiate, however they spoke absolutely about only explicit issues which could not be replaced with others. Of course, the current government of Russia thinks that we should not talk about occupation, such people are also in Georgia but they represent a marginal minority here. This is not an absolute majority of the Georgian society and with this position these people will always be members of a minority. If Russia desires to have a dialogue with Georgia, they should talk with the Georgian society as a whole, which think that de-occupation is the most decisive for our country and occupation cannot be our natural condition. This is our position and the position of the international community that has been specifically expressed” – stated the President of Georgia.