Sergei Ivanov’s comments came in an interview for Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, according to Poland’s niezalezna.pl website.
Ivanov, now Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for environmental and transport issues, would not provide details of the plan “but even the details he did reveal are shocking,” niezalezna.pl reported.
Meanwhile, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency said that, in his interview, Ivanov blamed the outbreak of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war on Georgia and Western countries.
Ivanov skipped the fact that Russia had for several years been providing South Ossetian separatists with military and political support, IAR reported.
Wednesday marked 10 years since the outbreak of the Russo-Georgian war over South Ossetia.
The United States has urged Russia to withdraw its forces from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed separatist regions of Georgia.
Meanwhile, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine on Tuesday called on Russia to "reverse its illegal recognition of the so-called independence" of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In a joint statement issued on the 10th anniversary of "the Russian military aggression against Georgia," the four countries demanded that Russia "fully implement" the 2008 ceasefire agreement and "engage in a constructive manner into the process of Geneva International Discussions (GID)," which were launched in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2008, to address the consequences of the conflict in Georgia.
Poland’s foreign ministry on Monday called on Moscow to “abandon its aggressive and provocative policy” toward Georgia.
The foreign ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and the deputy prime minister of Ukraine were in Georgia on Monday and Tuesday "to jointly commemorate the victims of the war and in a gesture of solidarity with the Georgian state and people," as Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz put it.
The joint trip to Tbilisi followed in the footsteps of the late Polish President Lech Kaczyński, who in August 2008 organised a visit in support of Georgia.
(pk/gs)
Source: IAR/niezalezna.pl