"Many compatriots and foreign experts have reasons to believe that some significant threats by Tbilisi to Abkhazia and South Ossetia may prove counterproductive and even disastrous for Georgia itself," Kokoshin said at a Moscow round table discussion on security measures in the Caucasus.
According to him, "Russia is vitally interested in stability and security in the South Caucasus, yet neither at the expense of the rights of its citizens living there being humiliated (up to two thirds of the population of Abkhazia and 90 percent of South Ossetians hold Russian passports), nor at the price of losing its political, economic and military-strategic positions there."
Kokoshin also recalled that of late "in private talks, many high-ranking activists in the US and in the West have opposed Tbilisi's use of force and have been recommending it strongly to seek Russia's help in solving peacefully these most acute problems."
"Of course, Russia has enough resources and will thwart the realisiation of any "military scenario" in solving the problems in Abkhazia or in South Ossetia," the parliamentarian believes.
"We have enough political and other means for that," Andrei Kokoshin stressed.
According to him, Russian citizens would like to have "Georgia and all other countries and regions as safe and long-term partners, good neighbours and, if possible, allies, especially with the role of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation increasing dynamically and the Organisation itself turning into a modern full-fledged international organization whose members have equal rights in it."
