30/01/2020 | 19:08:56 Thank you Chairman. I certainly do not wish to return to yesterday's debate. But just in two words I wish to respond to the colleague from the Russian Federation who offered us the best joke of today: that he represents the opposition in the Russian Parliament. There was diversity of views in the Russian Parliament before the Bolshevik coup, and then in the brief window when Boris Nemtsov was there for example. But this window has been long shot by the current regime in Russia. Let me thank... 29/01/2020 | 19:33:38 Thank you Chair. I'm not a big fan of WikiLeaks and certainly not of Julian Assange. Not at all. But some of the cables that were published in those years, there is one diplomatic cable from 2009 in which Georgian leadership of the time makes a prediction that Putin's next move will be in Crimea. It is so tragic that that prediction came true. Today, as we make this wrong decision to leave the Russian delegation here, with a high level of confidence we can make a prediction that things from... 27/01/2020 | 15:48:29 Thank you, Chair. Some of the colleagues this morning voiced optimism on the dynamics of the behaviour of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. A lot of Members of this Assembly do not share this optimism. It was for that reason that we rose this morning to challenge the credentials of the Russian Federation on various grounds. One angle on which I want to draw your attention today is the track record of the Russian Federation specifically in the context of the resolutions that this Assembly has... 25/06/2019 | 12:15:07 I have one simple message. Anybody who tried to pressure members of this assembly with the financial argument, was dishonest. This whole exercise was dishonest. Georgia is a poor country, but Georgia paid fifty percent of its annual membership fee extra. Georgia paid for the Russian citizens to continue using the European Court of Human Rights, even though the Russian Constitutional Court can, and has, overturned its judgements. Why wasn't it possible to redistribute the amount in question... 25/06/2019 | 10:56:30 Thank you, thank you, Chair. For the attention of journalists, media and citizens who watch this broadcast, I want to clarify that the matter of Russian credentials is not over yet, that they have been challenged, there is another procedure in the Monitoring Committee and there will be another vote on challenging the Russian credentials. So the question is not closed yet. It is clear that decision-makers in countries which supported yesterday's motion, and it's not a secret it's an open... 24/06/2019 | 18:55:49 Thank you. The arguments have been repeated over and over. Just a couple of days ago, we had pro-European demonstrations in Tbilisi, which still go on. People are angry with our own Government. It's our internal thing. Russia's reaction? They imposed - they forbade - Russian tourists to visit Georgia, interfering in internal matters of a neighboring State. I'm sure many Russians will defy this and will still come to Georgia, and many others will come. But the point is simple: Russia... 24/06/2019 | 12:03:51 Thank you. My point regards the item of the Boris Nemtsov murder. I knew Boris Nemtsov, many of you did too. He was the best chance Russia had. He was a serious politician who could win. For five years, he was murdered, he ended up with a bullet in his head at the Kremlin Wall. For five years, this assembly didn't find time to discuss this. I regret that some leaders of this organisation and I also regret, which includes the Secretary General, have delayed this as they could. Doesn't Boris... 12/04/2019 | 12:19:10 I will speak about the situation in Georgia’s occupied territories and the non-implementation of the European Union-brokered ceasefire agreement. Dear colleagues, disregarding what different members of this Assembly or others in Strasbourg or Brussels think about how the Russian Federation should be treated, there is overwhelming agreement that the Russian Federation’s behaviour in the last decade or more has been a serious problem and challenge to all of Europe. One of the important... 10/04/2019 | 19:04:10 Colleagues, you know me. I represent the opposition in Georgia, and I have many disagreements with my government and prime minister. Today, however, they made a move that I support, namely to make a voluntary contribution of €500 000 to the Council of Europe. The resolution of the financial question was not that difficult. It simply required some high-level diplomacy with Member States to redistribute the sum in question among them all. Even for a poor country like Georgia, that sum was... 09/04/2019 | 16:53:51 I thank the author of the report and of the important and useful proposal. However, irrespective of whatever well-designed frameworks and mechanisms may be put forward, unless the rules and regulations of this Organisation are applied equally to all members, and unless exemptions for any members are ruled out, there will always be a grave risk of the mechanisms malfunctioning, however perfectly they may be designed. It has been an open secret for the last 10 years or slightly more that the...