Georgia’s PM Bidzina Ivanishvili said on November 12, that Moscow’s initial reaction to his decision to appoint special representative for relations with Russia was “disappointing.”

Russian Foreign Ministry said on November 3, two days after Georgia’s new PM appointed former ambassador to Russia Zurab Abashidze as his special envoy, that Moscow was now expecting from Tbilisi to take unspecified “concrete practical steps.”

Speaking a news conference after meeting with President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso in Brussels, PM Ivanishvili said that Russia’s response was not “equivalent” to his decision to appoint the special representative.

“Our government has made a very concrete step when  I appointed a special representative for relations with Russia and at the first stage we received certain disappointment by their [Russian authorities’] statements; there has not been an equivalent reaction from Russia yet. We still expect and we hope that the Russian authorities will make further analysis and will make a relevant step. Escalation is not favorable either for Russia or Georgia and both of us should manage to improve and develop our historic relationships,” PM Ivanishvili said.

President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso said at the same press conference, that during the meeting he was informed by Georgia’s PM about appointment of special representative for relations with Russia. He said “relationships of our partners with such an important neighbor as Russia is” were very important.