Georgians promise to frustrate the Sochi Olympics

The leader of the Green Party of Georgia, Giorgi Gachechiladze, said that his party is promising to frustrate the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi (the Black Sea region in Southern Russia) unless Russia changes its policies towards Abkhazia and South Ossetia (breakaway republics in Georgia, unrecognized internationally). 

“If Russia does not leave us alone, there will be no Olympic games in Sochi,” as Georgia’s main oppositionist threatened on Friday.

 

According to him, it is not an empty threat and the promise will be fulfilled since the Green Party is a huge political party in Europe, and the “Greens” from all over Europe are behind it.

 

Mr. Gachechiladze would not specify which way the Georgians are going to carry out the threat. Yet he said that the “Greens” would include filing a suit with the Strasbourg Court against Russia.

 

Earlier Georgian central government in Tbilisi has already informed that Georgia can create serious problems for Moscow. Thus, Georgia’s Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources is appealing to the UN concerning illegal mining for building materials in Abkhazia and shipping them outside Georgia.

 

Russian-Georgian relations have gotten tenser in March after Russian president signed an edict that mentioned establishing relations with the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

 

Georgian government has accused Moscow of “crawling expansion, and then invasion of the Georgian territory”. Moscow responded that all actions by the Kremlin are based on the international law and the current agreements.

 

The latest outburst of the tensions happened when a unit of Russian commandos was disarmed in Zugdidi and when Russian weapons, including missiles, were seized by the Georgian authorities. In response to the actions by the Georgian authorities, who thus prevented the creation of a terrorist base in Western Georgia, Moscow has threatened Tbilisi with bloodshed.

 

Kavkaz Center