(AP)- The chairman of the OSCE international security organization on Friday called on Russia to resume "all normal contacts" with neighbor Georgia.
"Isolation is no solution. I call on Georgia and Russia to tone down the political rhetoric," Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht, who holds the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in a column for the De Morgen newspaper.
On Thursday, Moscow imposed measures to restrict the right of Georgians to live and work in Russia in the latest retaliation aimed at the small, impoverished Caucasus nation, reports Trend.
A bitter dispute erupted last week between the two countries after the arrest of four Russian officers on charges of spying. Despite their release, Moscow has slapped a range of punitive sanctions on its small southern neighbor as well as launching a crackdown on Georgian migrants and businesses in Russia.
"I call on Russia to follow up the transfer of the Russian officers by resuming all normal contacts with Georgia," De Gucht said.