Putin declines to meet Georgia's foreign minister

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined to meet Georgia's foreign minister sent to Russia for the first high-level talks with giant neighbour in a bid to mend the two states' chilly ties, RIA news agency said on Tuesday.

"On the eve of Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili's visit to Moscow, the issue of his meeting with the Russian President was in works," a senior Kremlin official told the agency.

"But as the Kremlin official stressed, Vladimir Putin rejected the idea of such a meeting," RIA said.

Bezhuashvili arrived in Moscow on Tuesday evening, Russian news agencies said. Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's Security Council, said earlier on Tuesday he would meet Bezhuashvili, as would Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.