Russia wants Georgia's "concrete deeds" to mend ties: FM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Georgia must back up its desire to mend relations with Russia with "concrete deeds."

The Russian top diplomat said Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili spoke about Georgia's desire for normalization of relations with Russia at their meeting on Wednesday.

"We accepted these assurances, as we already have for the past two years. But we want to see concrete deeds," Lavrov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Bezhuashvili's meeting with Lavrov was seen as a bid to mend ties that nose-dived in late September after the Caucasus nation briefly detained four Russian officers on spying charges.

Moscow, infuriated by the arrests, has imposed an economic blockade on Tbilisi by cutting transport and postal links, and has deported Georgians accused of staying in Russia illegally.

Ties between Moscow and Tbilisi have been strained by tensions over Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the country's bid to join NATO since President Mikhail Saakashvili came to power in 2003.

Source: Xinhua