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Georgia wants good relations with Russia - President Saakashvili

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Georgia wants good relations with Russia, President Mikheil Saakashvili said Friday while commenting on the Georgian Orthodox Church leader's visit to Moscow.
TBILISI, December 12 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia wants good relations with Russia, President Mikheil Saakashvili said Friday while commenting on the Georgian Orthodox Church leader's visit to Moscow.

Georgian Patriarch Ilia II attended the funeral of Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II, who was buried Tuesday in Moscow.

Saakashvili said that before leaving Russia, Ilia II had a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"We agreed the message His Holiness was to bring to the Russian president's notice. I am glad that the Patriarch rendered our thoughts word for word and expressed his opinion to the president of the country that occupied a big part of Georgian territory and keeps occupying it," the president said at a meeting with Georgian citrus growers.

Saakashvili said Ilia II "clearly told the Russian leadership that no Georgian national will ever put up with Georgian regions' occupation and appropriation of Georgian lands."

"I am very grateful to the patriarch for taking upon himself the implementation of this diplomatic mission," he said.

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze, who met on Friday with Ilia II, said he does not rule out resumption of government talks with Russia.

"The talks will probably be resumed on the government level as well," he said. "Sooner or later, Georgia's territorial integrity will be restored. After that, conditions for normal diplomatic and cultural relations between Russia and Georgia will appear."

Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states on August 26 after a five-day war with Georgia, which had attacked South Ossetia to bring it back under central control.

The two Georgian breakaway republics have had de facto independence since they broke away from Georgia in bloody post-Soviet conflicts in the early 1990s.

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