The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland has been carefully following the situation developing in front of the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi that erupted in connection with the participation of a delegation of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the 26 th session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO).

In the context of the 2008 war, the memory of which is still alive
for many Georgians, and in light of the continuation of Russia’s aggressive policy towards Georgia, as manifested inter alia by Moscow’s policy towards the separatist regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia, we consider understandable the expressions of distrust and outrage caused by the presence of Russian deputies in the Parliament of Georgia and the chairing of the IAOAssembly session by Sergei Gavrilov.

We call on all sides to keep clam and to avoid escalation. We want to draw special attention to the responsibility of authorities for the security of citizens, freedom of assembly and of expression of opinion and the adequate use of direct coercive measures. We regard the use of force against journalists and other members of the civil society to be inadmissible.

 

MFA Press Office