Speaking Sunday at a press conference at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that an agreement to resolve the decades-long standoff in the South Caucasus country was possible.Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

Russia could do deal with Georgia over occupied regions, hints foreign minister – POLITICO

by · POLITICO

Russia is open to a compromise that could see its troops leave Georgia’s Moscow-backed breakaway regions, the country’s top diplomat has claimed.

Speaking Sunday at a press conference at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that an agreement to resolve the decades-long standoff in the South Caucasus country was possible.

Georgia’s increasingly authoritarian government has sought closer ties with Moscow in recent years, while relations with the West have soured as a result of crackdowns on the democratic opposition and civil society. That’s despite Moscow’s launching a bloody invasion in 2008 that left around a fifth of Georgia’s territory under the control of Russian forces and their proxies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.