Kalashnikov: It is easier to speak in plain language than with language of guns

Moscow: Head of the State Duma Committee for CIS countries, Leonid Kalashnikov, in an exclusive interview with Front News International, talked about the forthcoming visit of a group of Russian parliamentarians to Georgia, possible tripartite Georgia-Russia-NATO talks and readiness for talks with the Mikheil Saakashvili party in Tbilisi.

 

Front News: You were not allowed to go to Georgia in 2013. What will you do if it will repeat?

 

Leonid Kalashnikov: I have never traveled there since Soviet times, so they could not let me go there and did not intend to go. Moreover, did not ask for a visa, never asked. This does not mean that I can easily get a visa, it is not so easy. Surely, there can be problems, but we’ll see. I’ll get it-okay, I will not get it – okay. I’m not going to visit Georgia yet, so I did not take such decision. I’ll think about it later.

 

FNI: After all, your visit was announced.

 

LK: Yes, the meeting was announced. Now, everyone has vacations in Georgia. Well, when they will invite, we’ll go. I have a deputy going there, along the line of the church, with a group that would start to create an informal meeting, and then it will be replenished with new members. And if I will not go, then others will, nothing terrible.

 

FNI: What do you plan to discuss?

 

LK: Discuss the problems that arise as they arise: the aviation message is broken, with visas we can help somewhere and improve the situation. At least we will try to do it. Our humanitarian cooperation should not cease because we do not have diplomatic relations now and this does not mean that we have become alien to each other. Therefore, in this sense there are a lot of questions that are of interest: diplomatic, visa, visits of mutual, cultural exchanges, religious. All this brings us together and the parliament should do it. From the fact that the authorities decided there that we live in hostile states, these issues are not solved by themselves. I think that we are able to promote them and help them in this sense. So let’s see what happens.

 

FNI: So, are you going there to reconcile Georgia with Russia?

 

LK: No. Am i Pope to reconcile Georgia with Russia? Georgia and Russia have their differences, which are decided where they are supposed to be decided. I am not authorized to solve all the issues, I only have to contribute to this and will do my best to facilitate it.

 

FNI: MP of the Parliament of Georgia Ada Marshania said that this meeting will be in the Russia-Georgia plus NATO format.

 

LK: She suggested at our meeting, which we held at this informal working group, when we expressed our indignation that so many exercises of NATO troops are carried out, even more than in Saakashvili’s time and this does not help, but only strains our Relationship. And she suggested: “And let’s three of us meet? You also have a Russia-NATO dialogue and let’s try the three of us – Russia-NATO-Georgia.” Here they have their own dialogue, we have our own dialogue and now we will try to combine them. Understand these issues, including those that strain us – to regulate them. Nobody objected. No one, as I understand it, especially in NATO, wants to participate in this tripartite meeting.

 

FNI: And why do you think that NATO does not want it?

 

LK: I heard the speech of the NATO representative in Georgia.

 

FNI: What could be the reason?

 

LK: They do not want to answer uncomfortable questions. I have been a member of the NATO PA for many years and answers to my questions … when, for example, in Libya, everything was calm and the embargo started, unfortunately. I did not receive any answers to my questions. Then I was a deputy in the PACE, I also did not get answers to many questions, and then hostilities began. That is very bad, if we are not able to talk simply as a parliamentary language – then everything ends in military actions. As here, I would like them to show their understanding in this sense, which is easier to speak in the language of words than with the language of guns. However, it depends on them – they want to meet, then we will plan such a meeting.

 

FNI: Your group will be able to replace the Karasin-Abashidze group, which gathers in Prague once a year.

 

LK: No, she can not replace the Karasin-Abashidze group. Dialogue that goes along the line of Karasin-Abashidze is diplomatic negotiations, which can be at the junction of parliamentary negotiations. And they do not interfere with each other, but only supplement. You know, in the life of each state there are many different directions, and they do not interfere with each other, but on the contrary – each one in the process of his competence – to decide and help each other. In any case, I know Karasin well. I know that from him I feel only support and help, if it is required at the parliamentary level.

 

FNI: Are there possible joint meetings between your group and the Karasin-Abashidze group?

 

LK: If they are needed, then I fully admit this possibility, but so far, I do not see such necessity. If there are any questions in the diplomatic department, then we quickly solve them in working order. I do not need to wait for this decision or additional meetings. I look forward to the help and support of my comrades in those matters when I need it. I do not feel any problems.

 

FNI: Recently, the President of Ukraine went to Georgia and visited the occupation line. Georgia accuses Russia that the Russian Federation is pushing the border into the interior of the territory.

 

LK: Well, the accusation is a charge. They just do not blame. I do not go there, I do not measure – 700 meters, 600 meters, and back and forth. There is a state called Abkhazia, there is a state called South Ossetia, so let them solve these issues with them. Instead of deciding, they passed a law on the occupied territories. And we expressed this on this group too, that “you are going to talk to these people if you consider them people?!” “Yes,” they say. Well, so you brought everyone under the law on the occupied territories and do not want to talk. I bring to this entire example: the president, now deceased, Heydar Aliyev, when people came to power in Baku with arms…. Outfits, regiments of the division fought, killed, drove from there Russians, Jews, Armenians. As soon as Heydar Aliyev came, he first went to this insurgent colonel alone, he was told, “what are you going there for?” He is a terrorist, he is, as they say now, a militia or a rebel – I mean, for example, Donbass – and he says, “no, these are my people, citizens of my state, I must go to them.” I went and immediately after 2 years, he calmed the situation and decided the questions. What Poroshenko promised by the way speaking before his election, he never did it. Instead of going really, negotiating, running for Trump, Merkel, now he went to Georgia on the borders to set fire to another state. If you want to solve the problem – solve it, as the late Heydar Aliyev decided. Now calm Baku, smart and beautiful, where there are Russians, Jews, and other nationalities. So in this sense it has long been known how to solve the conflict. Do not run across the ocean, beyond the ocean you are not expected, they have their own problems.

 

FNI: Tell me, do you plan to speak with the opposition of Georgia?

 

LK: Why not? I always talk to the opposition. If I can have such a meeting, I will definitely meet. Why not. Who do you mean in Georgia – the opposition? If you mean the “Georgian dream”, then I have not only met with the ruling “Georgian Dream”. As far as I know, the Georgian Dream would like to talk. Let the questions that separate us, remain outside the threshold. Let’s solve those issues that are able to solve. There are a lot of them. And the territorial issues are not those issues that we are capable to solve today. These are issues of two, more precisely, three states. Let them decide themselves.

 

FNI: It was the party of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

 

LK: If they want to meet, I’ll meet. I do not  have any unambiguous orientation. In general, I am communist. Unlike your European parliamentarians who talk about the double standards and approaches of Putin, Brezhnev or Stalin, when the Czech insurgency leads, dissidents … themselves … do not let us now go to Europe. And now you are talking about Georgia. And what are you afraid of? Afraid of talking, or what? You said that you can not deprive freedom of speech … So here. Saakashvili … with his party, I’m ready to meet. If this will help the Russian-Georgian relations, we will understand during the meeting. I’m not afraid of them. I will take part with pleasure.

 

FNI: Will your visit to Georgia be conducive to the meeting of President Putin with President Margvelashvili?

 

LK: I would do anything for this. Moreover, President Vladimir Putin recently reiterated his position, including with regard to diplomatic opportunities, and in the diplomatic establishment of relations, including with regard to the visa regime. What depends on me, I will do everything for this.

 

FNI: Negotiations on the organization of these meetings have already begun?

 

LK: I do not know about this. I do not work in the Foreign Ministry. I can not tell you.