Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said he was sure that Moscow and Tbilisi would resume ties some day based on “new realities” that had emerged after the August war.

“I am sure that some time later our relations will be restored on a new basis, taking into account those realities, which have been created and taking into account those tragic pages, which these relations have passed through recently,” Medvedev said in a pre-recorded interview aired by Russian television station, NTV, on July 26.

He said that President Saakashvili harmed historically close relations between Russian and Georgian nations.

“Regimes, like that of Saakashvili, come and go, but feelings between the nations remain,” Medvedev said.

He also said in the same interview that it was “gradually understood” by NATO that it was not ready “to absorb” states like Ukraine and Georgia. On Ukraine he said that the idea of joining the Alliance was not popular among its citizens.

And on Georgia he said: “Does NATO need a state that has that many problems?”

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said on July 26, that “if Ukraine and Georgia someday are eligible for and desire to join NATO, that should be up to them.”

“We want to make clear that as we reset our relationship, we are very clearly not saying that Russia can have a 21st century sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. That is an attitude and a policy we reject. We also are making it very clear that any nation in Eastern Europe that used to be part of the Soviet Union has a right now as a free, sovereign, and independent nation to choose whatever alliance they wish to join,” she said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”.