President Saakashvili said that the current UN observer mission in Georgia was not effective and would not regret much if it stopped functioning. He, however, also added that although “ineffective” he wished the mission to stay.

“Unfortunately Russia has the right to veto UN and OSCE missions,” he said on January 23 in his lengthy televised Q&A session with the public.

“I have seen with my own eyes in Zugdidi in August - when I arrived there and wanted to go to Kodori - the Russian tanks approaching [bridge over] Enguri [river] where the UN observers were standing; Russians told them: we give you 20 minutes to get out from here; they ran away from there in ten minutes; they have run away so quickly that we in fact appeared besieged by the advancing Russian military contingent,” Saakashvili said.

“If I had not seen with my own eyes how ineffective this mechanism is, I would have felt very sorry [about the possible end of the mission]. I wish that this mechanism is maintained but I also want to say that unfortunately it is very ineffective,” he added.

Officials in Tbilisi say that Russia may also veto extension of UN observers’ presence in Georgia after it had already blocked extension of OSCE mission’s mandate.

Like in case of OSCE mission, which among other things was dealing with the South Ossetian conflict, Russia is also pushing for having separate, independent UN mission in Abkhazia, which will not be linked with UNOMIG headquarters in Tbilisi.

In October, the UN Security Council agreed on technical four-month extension of UN mission’s mandate, till February 15. The text of resolution does not even mention the mission’s official name – UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).

President Saakashvili also said on January 23 that he welcomed presence of EU monitors “at least because to prevent press reports that as if Georgia is staging provocations.”

“Russia is paying money [for such press reports],” he said. “Money works not only in the Georgian press, it works in the world too.”