VOA标准英语2013--俄罗斯关切格鲁吉亚总统大选

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Russia Concerned Over Georgia's Presidential Election 俄罗斯关切格鲁吉亚总统大选

TBILISI — Before Russia fought a shooting war with Georgia, it fought a trade war with its small neighbor.

First, Russia lifted a 7-year-old ban on Georgian wine - and wine bottles started flowing north this year to Moscow.

Next, Russia re-opened its borders to Georgian mineral water.

Here is Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary¹ inspector², welcoming Georgian wine:

But, on Friday, trade normalization³ between Russia and Georgia hit a big "road bump."

Onishchenko said he would not lift Russia's embargo⁴ on Georgian fruits and vegetables.

He repeated charges that a “secret” U.S.-funded laboratory outside Tbilisi Airport is behind the African swine fever epidemic⁵ that is spreading 2,000 kilometers to the north, in European Russia.

Earlier, Georgian officials showed VOA around their new laboratory complex, the Richard G. Lugar Center for Public Health Research.

Owned by Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control, the lab tracks polio, measles⁶ and other infectious diseases.

Adam Kotorashvili came home to Georgia from the United States to run the lab’s Genome Center.

“This machine is unique for Georgia and the whole region. Before if you wanted to sequence something you had to send sample to the United States or in West Europe somewhere.  And now you don't need to do that. You can just bring the DNAs here and then we can sequence it," said Kotorashvili.

General Director Amiran Gamkrelidze rejects the accusations⁷ coming from Moscow.

“We have no secrets here. We are not doing anything connected with biological weapons," said Gamkrelidze.

The director, who studied in Moscow in the 1980s, then invited Russia’s chief sanitary inspector to fly down to Tbilisi and tour the lab.

Indeed, politics - not science - may be behind the trade fight.

Two months from now, Georgians vote for a new president.

Mikheil Saakashvili, who tangled⁸ with Moscow for almost a decade, steps down due to term limits.

From Moscow, Chris Weafer analyzes⁹ the Kremlin’s strategy:

“The message could not be clearer: if you elect a different president with a more friendly stance to Russia, then these economic problems will disappear. If you elect somebody that maintains this belligerent¹⁰ attitude toward Russia, then economic ties will deteriorate," said  Weafer.

Meanwhile, out of the spotlight¹¹, the same Russian food safety agency that banned Georgian fruits and vegetables back in 2006, quietly sent its inspectors¹² back to Georgia in August.