MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Relations with Georgia are not among Russia's priorities today, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
"I do not want to insult Georgia and the friendly Georgian people because we lived with them side by side for centuries. But relations with Georgia are not our priority today," he said.
"The Russian Federation does not have to and will not pay for any foreign state's needs out of its own pocket. For instance, until recently Russia spent $6 billion-$7 billion a year to support Ukraine. But I am not speaking only about Georgia and Ukraine. It concerns any country on former Soviet soil. If you want to pay for these states' needs, then go ahead. We have no objections, but we will not do the same," Ivanov said.
Suspending direct air links between Russia and Georgia does not mean sanctions, the minister said. Rather, the measure was prompted by Georgian airlines' debts, he said.
"You yourselves taught us what a market economy is about in the 1990s. In my opinion, we turned out to be good pupils. Now you are trying to accuse us, which is not quite understandable," Ivanov said.
"Georgia is insulting us all the time. It is impossible to avoid reacting to it," the ministry said. "I think that Georgia's policy can be characterized by a certain decree of hysterics and, what counts most, its desire to resolve its domestic problems at someone else's expense, including at the expense of NATO and the European Union," he said.