Meeting in Istanbul on October 30-31 on the initiative of RIAC and Georgian Center on Conflicts and Negotiations (ICCN), Russian and Georgian experts came to a conclusion that stage one of Russia-Georgia thaw is over and previous incentives for rapprochement are no longer working, which brings the bilateral relationship to a pause. A boost toward normalization might be found through cooperation on security, counterterrorism and cross-border issues, the analysts suppose.
Meeting in Istanbul on October 30-31 on the initiative of RIAC and Georgian Center on Conflicts and Negotiations (ICCN), Russian and Georgian experts came to a conclusion that stage one of Russia-Georgia thaw is over and previous incentives for rapprochement are no longer working, which brings the bilateral relationship to a pause. A boost toward normalization might be found through cooperation on security, counterterrorism and cross-border issues, the analysts suppose.
The Russian side was represented by Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Program Director, Andrey Sushentsov, Senior Research Fellow of the Department of Applied Analysis of International Issues, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), Nikolay Silayev, Senior Research Fellow at the Caucasus Problems and Regional Security Center at MGIMO University, and Alexander Elisseev, RIAC Program Coordinator.
The Georgian delegation included ICCN's Executive Director Maya Katsitadze, Program Manager Nino Kizikurashvili and representative of the Russian-Georgian project in Russia Leila Machavariani, a RIAC blogger, as well as Director of the South Caucasus Studies Program at Republican Institute Ivlian Haindrava and Chief Research Fellow at Tbilisi State University Nikolay Dzhivakhishvili.
Leaders of RIAC and ICCN have expressed hope for continuing the bilateral cooperation in order to bring the two countries closer and are planning to issue an analytical report on Russian-Georgian relations.
