The Russian Foreign Ministry said on December 2 that Moscow does not support the recently proposed Action Plan by Tbilisi to peacefully solve the South Ossetian conflict because it does not coincide with the ‘three-stage’ peace plan voiced by President Saakashvili last September.
 
“The new initiative by Tbilisi, as it is set forth on paper, did not imply a clearly defined three-stage resolution to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict that served as a strong point in the previous plan, voiced by President Mikhail Saakashvili at the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. That plan was favored in South Ossetia as well,” Mikhail Kaminin, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said in an information note issued on Friday.

At the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on October 27, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli presented a plan of action – objectives and steps – the Georgian authorities intended to undertake to foster a resolution to the South Ossetian conflict in the nearest future so that a final solution could be found by the end of 2006.

Mikhail Kaminin said that the weakness of, as he put it, “Nogaideli’s plan,” is also the demand to change the current negotiating format and involve negotiators from the U.S., EU and OSCE in the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC).

“Georgia’s new initiative also differs [from Saakashvili’s three-stage proposal] by placing an unjustifiable emphasis on issues related to defining the future political status of South Ossetia. Achievement of this goal, which in the previous Georgian proposals was postponed, has now been scheduled to happen by the end of 2006, almost, in the new version,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman said.

He said that all these remarks were delivered to Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli during the latter’s visit to Moscow on November 24-25, adding “it seems the Georgian side accepted them with understanding.”

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli dismissed on November 22 Moscow’s criticism over Tbilisi’s action plan as groundless. He said that this plan is in line with the three-phase peace initiative voiced by President Saakashvili at the UN General Assembly last September.