Interview: 'NATO sent the wrong signal to Russia'

Russia is destabilising the breakaway region of Abkhazia because Moscow wants to divert Georgia from its NATO bid, Salome Samadashvili, the Georgian ambassador to NATO and the EU, told EurActiv in an interview.

According to Samadashvili, who was a member of the Georgian Parliament before being appointed to Brussels in 2005, the current tensions and last week's increase of the Russian military presence in Abkhazia are direct results of the failure of the Bucharest NATO summit in April to open the door to Georgia and Ukraine by granting them 'Membership Action Plans'. 

Noting that the EU itself was divided over the issue, with some countries insisting that Tbilisi should first solve the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Samadashvili urged the bloc not to link the two subjects.

"Russia has made it a foreign policy priority to prevent Georgia and Ukraine from joining NATO," Ambassador Samadashvili said. Dismissing Russian accusations that Georgia is positioning troops close to Abkhazia, she nevertheless admitted that her country is using unmanned spy planes to survey the situation in the conflict zone. She insisted that the use of such drones is legitimate. 

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