Georgia to restart granting visas to Russians in March

Issuance of Georgian visas to Russian citizens suspended in early September 2008 will resume after opening of respective sections at the Embassy of Switzerland in March 2009, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia has reported.

"Sections of Georgia and Russian Federation at Swiss Embassies in Tbilisi and Moscow will open simultaneously in March," Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia Grigol Vashadze told journalists today.

Mr Vashadze has noted that the Georgian section at the Embassy of Switzerland in Moscow will employ Georgian experts. Now, Russian diplomats in Tbilisi get ready to work in the Russian section at the Embassy of Switzerland, and their Georgian colleagues are doing the same, as the "Interfax" writes.

The flag of Switzerland will be hoisted over the building of former Embassy and Consulate of Georgia in Moscow, and the panel will be attached running that this is the section of Georgia's interests, as the "New region" remarks.

According to the decision of the parties, for lack of diplomatic relations, the interests of Georgia in Russia and of Russia in Georgia will be presented by Switzerland.