(civil) - The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided on January 22 not to hold urgent debates on Russian-Georgian tensions, as it was requested by the Georgian delegation, head of the Russian delegation MP Konstantin Kosachyov said.
MP Kosachyov, the Chairman of the Russian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the decision was made after Russia decided to return its Ambassador to Tbilisi, RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies, as well as Georgian television stations, reported.
We managed to convince the PACE Bureau that public discussions of [Russo-Georgian tensions] would have further politicized the issue and could have led to a new wave of mutual accusations, MP Kosachyov was quoted by Interfax as saying.
He added that the Bureau has instructed two of its monitors to continue closely watching developments in Russo-Georgian relations and, if necessary, report their findings in April.
Matyas Eorsi and Luc Van den Brande вЂ" co-rapporteurs from PACE in charge of monitoring Georgia, drafted a report on tensions between the two countries after visiting Tbilisi and Moscow in November, 2006, reports Trend.
The report was scheduled to be unveiled only in case of urgent debates at the PACE winter session.
The logic behind this decision of the PACE Bureau is that Russia still has to demonstrate a comprehensive readiness for improvement of ties with Georgia. And if the return of Ambassador is only a first step, before April they [the Russian side] will have time to continue this trend, MP Giga Bokeria, head of the Georgian delegation to the PACE, told reporters.