Abashidze: Restoration of railway communication with Russia via Abkhazia is not discussed so far

Restoration of the railway communication with Russia via the territory of Abkhazia is not discussed at the moment, Special Representative of Georgia’s Prime Minister for Relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze
said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Earlier, Georgian’s special representative said his country is ready to discuss organization of the Sukhum-Tbilisi-Yerevan transit railway communication only if “this helps resolve the Abkhazian conflict.”
“No extensive discussions on the railway have been held anywhere. That is why it is difficult to make any comments. In our opinion, it is the Georgian-Russian railway and, if we start thinking about reanimating it, we should start with the political issues, as we are not speaking just about restoration of communications. First and foremost, we should look into political problems to find out in what political situation such a project can be reanimated,” Abashidze said.
Furthermore, Abashidze said he is not familiar with the idea of a railway construction to link Georgia and Russia via Chechnya. Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov had already come out with such ideas previously.
“We have not discussed the issue. No one has applied to us with such issue or initiative,” Abashidze said.
The railway communication via Abkhazia was interrupted during the Georgian-Abkhazian armed conflict of 1992-1993. Representatives of the new authorities in Georgia have stated they are ready to restore the railway communication with Russia. Experts say, restoration of the 300km-long railway will require over 1.8 billion rubles.