TBILISI, DFWatch – A lawmaker in Georgia confirms that there were negotiations with Russia about setting up a counter-terrorism center together.

It was Georgia’s Vice Speaker of Parliament, Mikheil Machavariani, who Thursday responded to something the president-elect of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said the day before.

Mr Putin recalled negotiations with Georgia regarding setting up a counter-terrorist center in Adjara, an autonomous region of Georgia bordering Turkey.

Machavariani confirms that such an agreement really existed, but claims that it was not specifically about the Adjara region and at the end the center wasn’t set up because Russia did not fulfill a number of conditions and obligations, the Vice Speaker said, according to Interpressnews.

News agency Pirveli quotes Machavariani reminiscing about Saakashvili’s inauguration speech in 2004, saying ‘Saakasvhili extended a hand of friendship to Russia.’

Vladimir Putin Wednesday also blamed the Georgian government of provoking conflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He remembered that a number of times he spoke with the Georgian president and warned him not to bring the situation to bloodshed. Saakashvili agreed, but still went on and did controversial actions, he claimed.

Georgian officials have been disputing Putin’s version of events Thursday.

“Even Putin doesn’t believe in this statement,” Machavariani told Pirveli, refering to the 2008 military conflict.

“The whole world and Putin himself knows well who had been preparing for war,” he said.