Georgian Prime Minister Appoints New Advisor for Relations with Russia

The Prime Minister of Georgia has appointed Giorgi Kajaia as the new special representative for relations with Russia. The diplomat previously headed the section for Georgian affairs at the Swiss Embassy in Moscow.

Zurab Abashidze, who held the position of the Prime Minister's special representative for relations with Russia, has now been appointed as an advisor to the Prime Minister. According to Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Abashidze requested to leave the position, though no reasons have been provided.

Last February, Abashidze was at the center of a scandal following the leak of a phone conversation between him and Russian envoy Grigory Karasin. In the published recording, Karasin called his Georgian counterpart to inform him that a new road linking the two countries was being prepared in Moscow. "It should pass from the Krasnodar region to Georgia, towards the region to the left of the conditional South Ossetia," said the Russian envoy responsible for the normalization of relations with Georgia.

Abashidze confirmed the authenticity of the recording, asserting that there was nothing scandalous about it. Following the incident, which evoked a strong response from the Georgian opposition, no further reports of negotiations between the parties have surfaced.