Georgia’s attempts “to politicize” Russia’s WTO entry terms are “categorically unacceptable” for Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said at a news conference on March 10.

He said that Georgian and Russian negotiators were holding a meeting in the Swiss capital Bern on March 10 with the facilitation of Switzerland.

Lukashevich described the meeting as “consultations in trilateral format.”

Switzerland represents Russia's diplomatic interests in Georgia and Georgia's interests in Russia after the two countries cut diplomatic ties following the August, 2008 war.

“The dialogue should be held exclusively on complex of trade-related issues, which are related to WTO membership. Supposed attempts by Tbilisi to raise some sort of political aspects, which have nothing to do with the problem of Russia’s WTO accession are categorically unacceptable for us; I want to stress it with absolute resolve,” Lukashevich said.

Moscow hopes that the Swiss facilitations in the consultations “will effectively help to resolve this protracted issue,” he said.

Lukashevich also said that the issue was raised during the meeting between the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden with Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow on March 9.

“The Russian President has stressed inadmissibility of politicizing this issue, as well as the unacceptability of the Georgian leadership’s attempts to introduce those elements into the discussions, which are not related with the terms of WTO membership,” Lukashevich said.