MOSCOW (Agencies) -- President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's ambassador to Georgia to return to the Georgian capital after recalling him four months ago, saying Thursday that the two countries must "normalize" badly strained ties, AP reported.

Russia recalled Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko from the capital, Tbilisi, in September after Georgia briefly detained four Russian military officers accused of spying. Moscow retaliated with an economic and transport blockade and a crackdown on Georgian migrants.

Kovalenko "is returning to a country with which Russia has had for centuries not simply a special relationship, but neighborly and friendly relations," Putin said in comments shown on NTV television. "Unfortunately, we have encountered certain problems in our relations in recent years," Putin said, adding that he and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili agreed in November to "make joint efforts to normalize ties."

Georgia is a country "which Russia had not just special relations for many centuries, but relations of good neighborliness and friendship," he said, Chinaview reported.

Putin said that Russia made a step in that direction by signing a gas contract with Georgia late last year.

Russia's mammoth state natural gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, more than doubled the price of gas for Georgia.

Elected in 2004, Saakashvili has angered Moscow by forging closer ties to the West and seeking to join NATO in 2008. At the same time, he's tried to draw Abkhazia and South Ossetia, separatist regions of Georgia supported by Russia, back into the fold.

Putin said Russia would continue trying to help settle conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where it has deployed peacekeeping troops. Georgian officials have accused Russia of encouraging separatists in those rebellious regions.

Georgia's foreign ministry welcomed Russia's decision to send its ambassador back to Tbilisi. It said that Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, discussed ways to improve relations and "resolve existing problems" in a telephone conversation Thursday.

Bezhuashvili said also that his country will continue importing natural gas from Russia, Xinhua reported.

"We have no resources to substitute Russian gas, so we have decided to buy some, though the price -- 235 U.S. dollars for 1,000 cubic meters -- is ungrounded," Bezhuashvili was quoted by the Ekho Moskvy radio as saying.

"We are taking steps to bolster energy security, and this is very important. However, it is not just the issue of Russia; we would have diversified energy sources anyway, and the hike in prices for Russian gas was just what triggered those processes and made them a higher priority," Bezhuashvili said. Konstantin Gabashvili, head of the Georgian parliament's foreign affairs committee, also hailed the ambassador's return as a "move aimed to improve relations."

"The return of the Russian ambassador to Georgia is a good sign in relations between the two countries. We are fully aware that this does not mean an automatic solution of some problems, but this step may become the vector for normalization of bilateral relations. The Georgian authorities are for normalization and development of relations with Russia, taking into account the interests of both countries," Koto Gabashvili, chairman of the International Relations Committee of Georgia's parliament, said on Thursday.