TBILISI, February 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian ambassador to Georgia will meet with the country's foreign ministry officials on Friday to discuss issuing entry visas to Georgian citizens, Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said. The minister expressed hope that the talks between Vladimir Chikvishvili and Georgian diplomats would bring positive results.
"We cannot deliberately tie the issuance of visas to the Russian military personnel with the consular services rendered to regular citizens," Bezhuashvili said.
The consular department of the Russian Embassy in Georgia said Tuesday that it would stop issuing visas to Georgian citizens as of February 21, 2006 barring cases involving humanitarian factors.
"This forced move results from the fact that despite agreements reached on the withdrawal of Russian military bases and facilities from Georgian territory, which also regulate the rotation of Russian servicemen, the Georgian side has created artificial barriers for the receipt of visas by Russian servicemen during the year," the embassy said.
Bezhuashvili announced Wednesday that Georgia's Foreign Ministry had started issuing visas to the Russian military deployed in the South Caucasus republic.
"For servicemen whose visas have expired, we began issuing visas yesterday," Bezhuashvili said, adding that visas had to be issued to 1,200 Russian servicemen and their families.
