Д.Медведев.Совместная пресс-конференция по итогам переговоров с Федеральным канцлером Германии Ангелой Меркель.Part 1 скачать в хорошем качестве

Д.Медведев.Совместная пресс-конференция по итогам переговоров с Федеральным канцлером Германии Ангелой Меркель.Part 1

Part 1 Joint Press Conference with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel August 15, 2008 Bocharov Ruchei, Sochi DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all, I would like to express my satisfaction with the meeting I just had with the Federal Chancellor. This was our fourth meeting. Of course we discussed the most current events and above all the tragic consequences of Georgia's aggression against peacekeepers and civilians in South Ossetia.You know that these acts have caused numerous victims and led to floods of refugees, large-scale damage and other serious consequences that can only be called a humanitarian disaster. The Georgian leadership bears full responsibility for these illegal and ruthless actions. All of the many diplomatic efforts and talks in different formats, successful and unsuccessful, over these last 15 years were undone in a matter of hours by these acts of force. It gives the impression that Mr Saakashvili was simply sick and tired of diplomatic efforts and decided to solve all the problems and remove the obstacle of the Ossetians in one clean blow. This is why the operation was named accordingly "Free Ground".As you know, we responded with a number of measures to put an end to these actions. Russia remains the one force in this situation that can protect the civilian population and the Russian citizens living there. We took appropriate measures based on our right to self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. Security has been restored and Russia's peacekeepers remain the guarantors of this security in the Caucasus. Unfortunately, there are still a number of difficulties, but nonetheless, we and President of France Nicholas Sarkozy agreed on a set of basic principles for resolving the conflict and we think they provide a necessary and sufficient base for achieving a settlement. It now remains for Georgia to give its agreement to these principles, which must then be enforced under guarantees from Russia, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. I hope that this will all happen very soon. We are waiting for confirmation.We also talked about the need for an objective evaluation by the international community of the tragic events that took place in South Ossetia. I stress that this must be an objective and not one-sided evaluation, not biased one way or the other.But even more important now is to provide full support for the people affected by this humanitarian disaster. We need to ensure their security, give them medical assistance and rebuild the infrastructure that was destroyed. This is the task we need to concentrate on now.I said yesterday and repeat now that peace in the region needs to be restored and guaranteed so that no one is tempted by such idiotic ideas again. I think that this is the Russian Federation's primary task today.Ms Merkel and I will continue our discussions of various issues of course, but the start of our talks was devoted naturally enough to these tragic events.ANGELA MERKEL (retranslated from Russian): I would like to thank you once again for the invitation to come here to Sochi. We have not yet been able to talk about all the topics that we originally wanted to discuss, for obvious reasons, and of course the international situation and the situation here in the region have been the main subjects in our conversation. We talked with each other very openly in conveying our views of the situation. And I said very clearly that of course it is always a great pity when there are victims and here unfortunately there are many, many victims, but that even when you take into account Russias description of the situation, I would still say that Russias reaction has been disproportionate, and that the presence of military forces in the very heart of Georgian territory is wrong. Therefore the immediate implementation of the six principles agreed to is urgently needed so that Russian troops will withdraw from the territory of Georgia. I hope that there will be progress and that all parties sign the plan.I am pleased to hear that the Russian side considers this plan a good basis for a settlement. I thought it was a good idea that Nicolas Sarkozy, in his role as President of the European Union, went to Moscow and Tbilisi precisely to organise and develop such a framework. This does not mean that the conflict is resolved but at least it represents progress.I think that now we need to fix our eyes on the future. And in this regard it is very important that the issues Mr Medvedev mentioned were added to the statement. First and foremost is the question of a withdrawal to the lines agreed to in the plan.The second question concerns humanitarian assistance. I clearly expressed the hope that we will deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia as well as to South Ossetia. And in South Ossetia, irrespective of the nationality of people, Ossetian or Georgian, it is very important that international organisations be able to distribute humanitarian aid.