Days before the NATO summit in Bucharest began, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rolled out a new peace initiative for breakaway Abkhazia.

The foreign policy priorities of the presidential candidates. Most put Euro-Atlantic and NATO integration front and center, but good relations with Russia is, for some, another major consideration.

Tens of thousands of protesters have turned out in Tbilisi for the largest opposition rally since the 2003 Rose Revolution swept pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to power.

Georgia says it will move to formally ask Russian peacekeepers to leave the breakaway region of Abkhazia following reports that they seized and beat five Georgian police officers.

Interview with Jaroslaw Walesa, the member of parliament of Poland.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

I believe that the withdrawal of the Russian railroad troops from Abkhazia and the UN Security Council meeting, which was held on July 21 at Georgia’s request, cannot be directly linked to each other. 

ALEXANDER RONDELI

I do not think there is a relation between the UN Security Council meeting where the Russian fighter jets’ violations of the Georgian airspace were discussed and the withdrawal of the Russian railroad troops from Abkhazia.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Ex-chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze who had scandalously quitted President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team right before the May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections, returned to politics the very way that was most expected from her cautious and pragmatic mind.

VLADIMIR ZHARIKHIN

The main result to be drawn from the informal CIS summit is that under the new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Russia's policy in the post-Soviet space will not change drastically.

ARCHIL GEGESHIDZE

There are several reasons behind the victory of the “United National Movement” in Georgia's parliamentary elections, which took place on May 21. One of them is that the ruling party has drawn the right conclusions from the January presidential election.

DAVID BERDZENISHVILI

There was a lot of electoral fraud in the parliamentary elections that took place in Georgia on May 21. Such elections do not favor the rapprochement between Georgia and NATO. At the NATO summit in Bucharest it was decided that all the Alliance members would observe the parliamentary elections in Georgia carefully.

SERGEI BAGAPSH

What will Abkhazia do, if Georgia joins NATO? Abkhazia will do nothing. Let Georgia join NATO even tomorrow. We do not care about that.

EROSI KITSMARISHVILI

Currently, there are several negative points in the Russian-Georgian relations. The first one is Georgia’s bid for the NATO membership, the second one is Tbilisi’s conflict with the breakaway territories – Abkhazia and South Ossetia. There are also the problems of the bilateral relations.

TEMUR IAKOBASHVILI

It is impossible to settle the conflicts, on which I am working, without Russia’s participation, especially today when the situation has become so strained that the so-called "frozen conflicts" have got "unfrozen".

KONSTANTIN GABASHVILI

We do not want to be at war with anybody. We want to normalize the situation, start negotiating with Russia and other countries to put an end to the conflict.

VALERY KENYAIKIN

The parliamentary elections will be held in Georgia soon. That’s why an “external enemy” is being looked for to mobilize the country’s public opinion.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Almost all significant political forces in Georgia, including the ruling party, say that there are sufficient reasons for making the compromises with Russia that would not infringe upon Georgia’s national interests.

ALEXANDER KRYLOV, ALEKSEY MALASHENKO, ANATOLY OTYRBA, SERGEI MARKEDONOV, SHALVA PICHKHADZE, ZURAB ABASHIDZE, IVLIAN KHAINDRAVA

"For the first time the President of Georgia has put forward such far-reaching proposals," Alexander Krylov.

KONSTANTIN ZATULIN, ALEXANDER KONOVALOV, TATYANA PARKHALINA, OLES DONIY, LEONID KOZHARA, IVAN ZAETS, ANDREW KUCHINS

"Why do the Central and Eastern European countries seek to join NATO? For many of them it is a way to join the EU. Many countries took this as institutionalization of independence from Moscow. For many countries it was a way to return to Europe," Tatyana Parkhalina.

DMITRY MEDOEV, GURAM GUMBA, SERGEI ARUTYUNOV, SERGEI MARKEDONOV

"If to look at a map, one can realize that in the event of the conflict in Abkhazia the Georgian party is doomed to defeat, as has happened before. This is why Abkhazia has a very good chance of becoming independent," Sergei Arutyunov.

DMIRTY MEDOEV, VLADIMIR KHOMERIKI, MIKHAIL ALEKSANDROV

"After the recognition of Kosovo, South Ossetia’s position remains unchanged. When asked about our attitude to that precedent we have always answered that it is South Ossetia that can be a de jure precedent for Kosovo, not vice versa," Dmitry Medoev.

KONSTANTIN GABASHVILI

Georgia’s wishing to change the format of the Mixed Verification Committee on Settlement of the Georgian-Ossetic conflict and the consideration by the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the situation with South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the March 13 parliament hearings are different things.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Mikheil Saakashvili once again extends hand of friendship to Russia and proposes to “turn over a new leaf” in bilateral relations.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

It is unlikely that after the election President Mikheil Saakashvili has changed his position on Georgian-Russian relations. For the time being, the statements about his wish to normalize those relations cannot be taken seriously.

GHIA NODIA

On July 24 Tbilisi hosted the first meeting of the State Committee on the status of South Ossetia. The Committee is intended to work out an approach to resolving the argument about South Ossetia’s status that would be acceptable both to Georgia and South Ossetia. 

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

The Georgian authorities did their utmost to convince the Europeans in Brussels that Dmitry Sanakoev was not Tbilisi’s puppet, but a representative of the Ossetian population in Georgia including the breakaway region.

OLEG FESENKO, VITALY KULIK

Early in May the Tbilisi officials voiced that “it is necessary to carry on the political dialogue with the authorities of the Tskhinvali region”. But Mikheil Saakashvili’s government decided to negotiate with the “alternative President” of South Ossetia Dmitry Sanakoev, who is close to the Georgian government.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

The pending recognition of independence of the Serbian province Kosovo by the United Nations and attempts by Russia to apply the “Kosovo precedent” to the conflict zones in the post-Soviet space might reverberate negatively for Georgia.

MERAB PACHULIA

Ambitions of the Georgian authorities to develop cooperation with NATO are largely supported by the population. There is a consensus on the benefits that the country could receive after acquiring membership of the Alliance, though contradictions remain.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Members of the “National Forum” and some other opposition parties fear that Georgia may join NATO without Abkhazia and South Ossetia, thus losing those territories for good.

GHIA NODIA

Abkhazia, an unrecognized republic of Georgia, held December 6 a “national gathering” to express its will to gain independence.

MERAB PACHULIA

Under the current circumstances there seems to be no compromise between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway regions.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

I would like to analyze the deadlock crisis in the Russian-Georgian relations and to suggest a way out of this crisis.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

The Georgian minister on conflict settlement, Giorgi Khaindrava, called the recent meeting between the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia a "statehood game." While Georgian officials continue to describe political developments in the breakaway republics in this way, Abkhazia is taking a number of very important political steps that may give its cause a boost.

The Russian foreign policy boringly runs around in circles: the row with Estonia on the historic past, the squabbles between Moscow and Kyiv over the Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the confrontation with Georgia because of its breakaway republics etc. After having made a full circle we are back to square one - another conflict with Georgia.

The Georgian government has apparently been offering olive branches to the Russian government over the last two weeks, with the demotion of hawkish defence minister Irakli Okruashvili to the ministry of economy (he’s since resigned).