The new Georgian president has more than once refused to fly by special flights mentioned for the head of state and government delegations for which Il-62 was used earlier. Saakashvili already flew as an ordinary passenger on official visits to Strasbourg and Berlin.
On the day of his arrival in Moscow the Georgian president is going to speak before students and teachers of the Moscow Institute of International Relations and meet with a number of high-ranking officials, including president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Arkady Volsky and president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Yevgeny Primakov.
Mikhail Saakashvili believes the main aim of his Moscow visit is to create a positive tendency for the development of relations between Georgia and Russia.
All the problems accumulated between the two countries cannot be solved during one day. But we can begin discussing them and lay the positive foundation for the future development of relations between the two countries," the president said at a briefing in Tbilisi the other day.
Mikhail Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia a the extraordinary elections on January 4, held after the voluntary resignation of the former Georgian president, Eduard Shevardnadze on November 2003.
