TBILISI. Dec 21 (Interfax-AVN) - A Russian lawmaker said here on Friday that his country was ready to appoint its representatives to the joint Russian-Georgian commission set up to investigate last month's incidents on the border between the two nations.
Boris Pastukhov, chairman of the committee on CIS affairs and relations with compatriots of the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament, was speaking at a briefing that rounded up the first leg of Russian-Georgian negotiations on a new bilateral framework agreement.
Taking a question from Interfax-Military News Agency, Pastukhov said that Russia would announce its representatives as soon as Georgia fixed the term and place of the commission's sitting.
Georgian Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili said that Shevardnadze had appointed his representatives to the commission and notified Moscow on it.
According to him, Pastukhov's statement inspires optimism as far as quick investigation of the November incidents is concerned.
The commission is being established in line with a decision made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Georgian counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze in Moscow on November 30. The two presidents agreed to investigate jointly violation of Georgia's air space by unidentified planes that dropped bombs on the Georgian territory in the vicinity of the Pankisi and Arkhoty gorges.