Russia welcomes Georgia's willingness to join Sochi Olympics

Russia welcomed the new Georgian authorities' intention to participate in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, a high-ranking Russian diplomat said Wednesday. The leader of the election coalition Georgian Dream on Tuesday assured that the South Caucasus country should participate in the Sochi games. The election coalition leader, Georgia's would-be prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, told the press that no-show at the Olympic Games in Sochi would be a very bad statement from him. "Disruption of Olympic Games will be a very unserious statement from my side," said the Georgian billionaire whose six-party opposition coalition has won the 2012 legislative polls of the country. "If media reports about this statement are adequate, we consider it as positive," Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy for the Sochi Olympics, Valery Kuzmin, told local media. Moscow saw Ivanishvili's statement as a positive sign, Kuzmin said. "Russia welcomes the participation of Georgian athletes in big sporting festivities which the 22nd Winter Olympic and 12th Paralympic Games in Sochi in will be," Kuzmin said. Ivanishvili said Georgia must act as a good neighbor and make sure the Olympics go ahead peacefully and without any troubles. Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 over two breakaway Georgian regions. One of them, Abkhazia, borders the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.