MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Georgia's cooperation with NATO takes such forms that it actually makes Tbilisi a participant of NATO's policy to deter Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.
"Unfortunately, instead of building a good-neighborly and equal dialogue with neighbors — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — Tbilisi, with maniacal persistence, keeps repeating that they were 'occupied' by Russia. This absurd thesis is used as an argument for further rapprochement with NATO," Karasin said.
"Sadly, but in this issue the position of the current Georgian authorities is in no way different from the position of the regime of [former Georgian President Mikhail] Saakashvili. Moreover, recently Georgia's cooperation with the alliance takes such forms that it actually makes Tbilisi a participant of NATO's policy to deter Russia," he said.