“Whole of Georgia and the entire world are well aware that Saakashvili has been found guilty by the court in a number of cases. This was also recognized by the relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,” said MP Givi Mikanadze of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the parliament.

“Last week, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution entitled “Further Escalation in the Russian Federation’s Aggression Against Ukraine.” In this resolution, the National Movement and a group of deputies of the Rada of Ukraine, with the support of the European People’s Party, sneaked in an amendment precisely at the last minute, where the convict Saakashvili is mentioned in parentheses. In the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which consists of 650 parliamentarians, the initiators took advantage of the absence of a large majority of parliamentarians and mobilized their own supporters to adopt this absurd addition to the text of the resolution by 56 votes.

The said amendment is absurd because both the whole of Georgia and the entire world are well aware that Saakashvili has been found guilty by the court in a number of cases. This was also recognized by the relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

I would like to remind you that in April of this year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution regarding Georgia’s fulfilment of its commitments to the Council of Europe, which contained not even a passing mention of Saakashvili’s illegal imprisonment or him being a so-called “political prisoner.” Moreover, only one out of 12 speakers who spoke about the resolution mentioned Saakashvili, and that speaker was Khatia Dekanoidze. In addition to all this, the absurdity of this addition stems from the fact that the content of the addition is not even contextually close to the letter and the spirit of the resolution. It is clear to everyone, however, that this was a ploy by a small group of Saakashvili’s lobbyists, which, unfortunately, brought about this absurd addition.

At this point, I will remind a number of opponents from the radical opposition of their statements suggesting that representatives of the authorities did not vote for the resolution supporting Ukraine – you know very well that we have supported all resolutions initiated thus far on any international platform, including the last UN resolution. I clearly stated my support for the resolution during the debate on the resolution, but I also noted that the text of the resolution requires some changes. Thus, our position on the resolution has been made clear to everyone. After that, I objected to the proposed absurd amendment that was put to the vote. Given that the change was reflected in the text, the only correct decision was not to participate in the vote on the final text of the resolution.

Therefore, both this absurd addition and statements suggesting that the authorities did not support the resolution on Ukraine are yet another example of the country being harmed by you.

Finally, dear opponents, since you are so happy and excited about the absurd addition to an extremely important resolution, I would like to tell you the following: Had you acted in the interests of our country in 2008, when you supported Resolution 1633 and Paragraph 5 contained within it, you would not have been so disgraced before the public, our heroic soldiers, the souls of the people who died as a result of Russian aggression, and their families,” Mikanadze said.