European ambassadors view EUMM`s work in Georgia

EU ambassadors have arrived in Georgia to review the living conditions of internally displaced people and work of the EUMM. The diplomats separated in three groups on Thursday and visited the places, where IDPs are living. One groups visited the village of Tserovani, while another part visited the villages of Gori district and the offices of the EU monitoring mission there. Later they visited the village of Tserovani, viewed the administrative building and school in the settlement of IDPs.
Georgian Minister for Refugees and Accommodation hosted the ambassadors in Tserovani and explained them in details what has been done since the August aggression, how many internally displaced people are living in the Tserovani now, how many cottages have been constructed and what kind of constructions are going on in the new settlements for IDPs.
The European ambassadors did not meet the local population, because as they said, the main purpose of their visit is to see the work of the EUMM on the ground.

Georgian speaker lays responsibility on Russia

Georgian ombudsperson will meet the parents of the four Georgian teenagers, kidnapped by occupants and separatists from the village of Tirdznisi on November 4. Giorgi Tugushi will give the information he possesses about the teenagers to their family members. The underaged Georgian citizens remain in the Tskhinvali isolator so far. Their family members demand information about the health state of their children. They say the children have health problems, but two of them need particular treatment. The parents of the detained children say they had expected to hear positive reports after the Geneva consultations, which ended without a specific result yesterday. In addition, they deny to be informed about the health state of their children by the Red Cross. Georgian speaker has also commented on the detention of the teenagers. Davit Bakradze lays full responsibility for the incident on Russia. He said, the purpose of the provocations is to cause Georgia`s emotional response that would give them a good reason to carry out more aggressive actions. The speaker also said, the Georgian side is working intensively with international organizations so that they put pressure on Russia for releasing the detained teenagers.

Moscow does not rule out using force by Georgia

Russia continues putting reproaches on Georgia. Representatives of the government, who arrived at the Kremlin to listen to President Medvedev`s annual address on Thursday, asserted that Georgia continues getting armed and its military potential is at the same level as it was in the pre-war period.
The Russian side does not rule out possible use of force by the Georgian side as well. The head of the Security Services blamed Georgia of connection with Al-Qaeda terrorist organization again.
`After the conflict in South Ossetia, Georgia gained the military potential as it had before the war and it happened at the expense of providing it with arms supplies by different countries. We know who the supplier is, although I don`t want to talk about it now. Our army has been already armed and in accordance with the agreement signed with Abkhazia and South Ossetia we will have two military bases in the towns of Gudauta and Tskhinvali. We need this to protect Russia`s interests`, Nikolai Markov, the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russian Federation said.

Putin warns Ukraine, Europe, with gas cut

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has warned that natural gas supplies to Ukraine will be suspended if it siphons off the fuel from pipelines bound for Europe without paying for it. Putin was speaking at a joint press conference Wednesday with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann after discussing with him a Russian-Austrian agreement that paves the way for South Stream pipe line project. It proposes to pump 63 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries across the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine. Putin called upon Ukraine, a key transit point for Russian oil and gas supplies to many European countries, to fulfill all its contractual obligations. `If they don`t pay, they don`t receive. If they don`t receive, then most likely there will be removal from the export pipeline, and as soon as removal begins, we will cut supplies,` Putin said, reminding the fuel crisis in January, when Russia halted all gas shipments to Europe via Ukraine for two weeks over a pricing dispute with Kiev. Putin last week urged the EU to `open its wallet` to help Ukraine pay its gas bills.

Business authorities from Belarus visit Georgia

Business authorities from Belarus have attended a bilateral business forum in Tbilisis`s hotel Radisson today, where they expressed their plans to look into business environment in Georgia. The forum was organized by the National Investment Agency and the Chamber of Trade and Commerce. The chairman of the Chamber Jemal Inaishvili spoke about the goals of the visits of Belarusian businessmen. He said the meeting was the continuation of bilateral cooperation. `We held our first forum in Minsk last year. The delegation members have specific proposals and plans in Georgia. The guests are interested to open joint enterprises in Georgia; they have shown interest into investing money in free industrial zones and the terms, which Georgia offers to investors. They have questions about the import-export procedures,` Inaishvili said. Deputy Minister of Economic Development has also made comments about the forum He said the businessman from Belarus were interested in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

8th round of talks ends in Geneva

Eighth round of international consultations on Georgia-Russia conflict ended without specific result in Geneva yesterday. The kidnapping of four Georgian children from the village of Tirdznisi was the issue put forth by Georgian delegation. Georgia demanded unconditional release of the hostages; the European co-chairmen of the negotiations joined the request of the Georgian side, however, in vain. They failed to agree on the problem. The delegations have also failed to agree on the document on the security in Georgia`s occupied regions. The Russian side and the representatives of the puppet regimes demanded two months to look into the details of the document.