Tbilisi not negotiating return of Georgian products to Russian market - minister
MOSCOW. July 7 (Interfax) - The return of Georgian products to the Russian market is a subject to be discussed by the Russian authorities and Georgian businessmen; the Georgian administration has nothing to do with it, Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told Ekho Moskvy radio on Thursday.
"If Russia is prepared to admit the hitherto banned Georgian products to its market, that is the business of the Russian state and Georgian entrepreneurs," he said.
There are no state companies in Georgia making agricultural products, bottling wine or mineral water, he said.
"If we learn that, say, 250,000 bottles are shipped to Moscow, I will applaud those who make it possible. However, I have no legal right to promote or hamper this process, and I will not do that," Vashadze said.
He thus refuted claims that Georgia and Russia were allegedly negotiating the return of Georgian products to the Russian market.
"There are no inter-state negotiations on the return of Georgian products, such as food, wine and mineral water, to the Russian market," he said.
He also commented on a statement by Russian Chief Public Health Official Gennady Onishchenko, who presumed that Georgia might be a source of the African swine virus. "As for the African virus, which, as you know, kills cloven-hoofed animals but is totally harmless for humans, it is spread in all countries of the world and it really takes a lot of effort to add the Georgian strain to the Russian African swine fever," he said.
"I am absolutely positive that the African swine virus came to Russia from Georgia," Onishchenko said.
He said that the outbreak of the African swine fever was not a biological war but could be described as an act of 'economic sabotage.'
