MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia gradually reclaimed its key role among Georgia's foreign partners over the past four years, with restored transportation, humanitarian contacts and cultural exchanges, Karasin said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
"But at the same time, Georgia is still not ready to restore diplomatic relations with Russia, which it severed in September 2008. Official Tbilisi periodically 'breaks' into confrontational rhetoric against our country. That, to put it mildly, does not give stability to the aforementioned positive trends," Karasin stressed.
Russian-Georgian relations soured in 2008, when Georgia launched a military operation against its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which ended in a five-day war with Russia.
Both regions declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and were recognized by Russia following the 2008 conflict.
