Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said he was pleased with the U.S. decision to drop its push for granting NATO Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine.

“I am pleased that finally common sense has prevailed – although, unfortunately, it happened at the end of the present U.S. administration’s [term in office],” Medvedev told journalists during the visit in Havana on November 27.

“In any case, it is the current state of affairs; whatever the reason is – whether the Americans have listened to the Europeans or something else, the most important is that this idea is no longer pushed forth so ferociously and senselessly as it has been done within past several years,” Medvedev added.

Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, said on November 26, that there was no need at this stage to discuss granting MAP to Georgia and Ukraine. She, however, also said that Britain had an alternative proposal on how to proceed with the NATO’s Bucharest summit decision, which says that Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members sometime in the future.

Davit Bakradze, the Georgian Parliamentary Chairman, said on November 28, that Medvedev’s remarks did not reflect the U.S. position in full.

“To see only the part of this statement [by Rice], which says that no MAP can be granted and not to see the other part, which speaks about joining NATO through using other mechanisms, is an attempt to accept desirable as reality,” Bakradze told journalists.

In his remarks on the matter, Medvedev also said: “Let these countries [Georgia and Ukraine] themselves decide what they want. I have already numerously said – let them hold referendums first - no such [referendums] have been held – and then move wherever they want to.”

77% of voters in Georgia said in the January 5 plebiscite that they favoured NATO membership.