The Georgian presidential office issued an official statement yesterday announcing that President Mikhail Saakashvili had to cancel his trip to the summit of former Soviet states due to take place in Moscow, amid increasing tensions between Georgia and Russia over the presence of peacekeeping troops in separatist Georgian provinces.

In a telephonic interview, a spokeswoman for the Georgian Foreign Ministry Nino Kajaia stated that Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin did not see each other given the fact that they did not find the right time to meet at the summit. Saakashvili was preoccupied with the current changes in his government and the establishment of a new line-up, new appointments being due to take place on July 24th. However, the round of discussions would be rescheduled for another time.

According to the official website of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, one of the political allies and friends of the Georgian President, the chief of state joined Saakashvili in not attending the two-day summit of leaders from the 12-member Commonwealth of Independent States, explaining that the current "political situation" in his own country rendered him unable to take part in the regional high-level meeting.

The European Union issued an official statement yesterday as well, expressing its profound concern with regard to the evolution of the tense diplomatic relations between Georgia and Russia in the last few months, following the resolution adopted by Georgian lawmakers calling for an international peacekeeping force to replace Russian troops in breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The mayor of the Russian capital, and avid supporter of Putin, Yuri Luzhkov, made an official visit in Abkhazia yesterday, which was labeled by Georgian Foreign Ministry as "a provocation and yet another demonstration of disrespect for the universally recognized norms and principles of international law". Moreover, he described this trip as showing the Russian policy is targeting the "actual annexation of Georgian territory".