On August 16-17, 2014, Istanbul hosted a regular expert session within project “Assistance to Russia-Georgia Dialogue” maintained by the Russian International Affairs Council and Georgian International Center of Conflicts and Negotiations (ICCN) with support of the Swiss government.
On August 16-17, 2014, Istanbul hosted a regular expert session within project “Assistance to Russia-Georgia Dialogue” maintained by the Russian International Affairs Council and Georgian International Center of Conflicts and Negotiations (ICCN) with support of the Swiss government.
The Russian side was represented by RIAC Program Director Ivan Timofeyev, Professor of Russian State University for the Humanities Sergey Markedonov and Assistant Professor of MGIMO Chair for Applied Analysis of International Processes Irina Blagova. The Georgian group included Director of the Caucasus Institute for Strategic Research Mamuka Areshidze, ICCN Program Manager Nino Kizikurashvili, Senior Research Fellow of Center for Social and Economic Studies Mikhail Tolmazishvili, and Associate Member of Georgian Academy of Sciences Avtandil Silagadze. The event was attended by Kevin Christian Tait, First Secretary of Swiss Embassy in Georgia.
The participants discussed the current status of Russia-Georgia relations, as well as cooperation in transportation, logistics and regional security, stressing that the expert dialogue should not hinge on the difficulties in Russia-West relationship, since only regular contacts may bring to effective problem solving.
