The communique of the Press and Information Board of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which has come to hand at RIA Novosti, says that, in the light of the recent worsening of tensions around South Ossetia, the situation in Georgia was in discussion at the Friday meeting between Russian State Secretary-First Deputy Foreign Minister Valeri Loschinin and the United States ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow.
The Russian side expressed great anxiety because the provocative actions of the Georgian authorities in South Ossetia involved, contrary to the earlier assurances, units trained within the framework of the American programmes of military cooperation with Georgia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that "this circumstance produces a negative effect on the general situation in the zone of conflict".
The American ambassador has made a note of the information supplied and agreed that the settlement of conflicts in Georgia should be carried out by political methods, negotiations with the use of the existing multilateral mechanisms. In this context, the importance was stressed of fulfilling the agreements reached at the June 2-3 meeting of the co-chairmen of the Mixed Control Commission for Settling the Georgian-South Ossetian Conflict.
