Tbilisi - Georgia's current authorities come under criticism in a resolution that was passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Oct. 1.
Georgian media reported from Strasbourg that, among other matters, the PACE resolution voices concern over the two-year-long pre-trial detention of the country’s former Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaya, as well as the seizure of assets belonging to ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili.
However, remarks claiming that former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili continues to informally rule Georgia were taken out of the document’s text.
A PACE rapporteur for Georgia, Boris Tsilevich, told Georgian reporters that he was unhappy with the text of the resolution.
‘This document is unlikely to help Georgia. We should not accuse it. Rather, we should help it with recommendations. Georgia’s greatest problem today is its polarization that goes beyond the framework of common political trends. A task facing our mission is to help Georgia overcome this polarization,’ he said.
The head of Tbilisi’s delegation to PACE, Tedo Japaridze, for his part, said he sees nothing tragic in this resolution mentioning Akhalaya and Saakashvili.
‘I do not see any tragedy in it. It is a message to the Georgian leadership that there are certain issues that require better work,’ Japaridze said.
