Andrei Rappoport, deputy chairman of the RAO UES board and head of the Federal Network Company, made a statement to this effect after his meeting with Zurab Nogaideli, Georgia's prime minister.
To quote him, "as regards our further cooperation strategy, we agreed to draft a document to cover the next five years at least. With this aim in view, we decided to set up working groups that will try to draft this document.
In turn, Zurab Nogaideli said that "we do not want to erect artificial barriers to the company's work in Georgia.
While in Tbilisi, the RAO UES' delegation also met with Kakha Bendukidze, Georgia's minister for economic and structural reforms.
Prior to the RAO UES delegation's arrival in Tbilisi, Nika Gilauri, Georgia's energy minister, told journalists that "Georgia will refrain from selling the country's energy facilities to Russian companies."
At the same time, the minister noted that this position "is based not on a specific attitude to Russia, but on the principle of preventing the creation of a monopoly in the energy sector by a foreign state's companies."
In Nika Gilauri's opinion, "the sale of new facilities to Russian companies may have a negatively effect on the country's energy security".
Since August 2003, RAO UES has had a 75% stake in the Tbilisi energy distribution company Telasi . It also owns a number of other energy facilities, including two power units of the TbilGRES power station and a cascade of the KhramiGES hydropower station. Apart from this, the Russian company supplies about 300 mW of electricity to Georgia.
