Georgia's ruling party fails to back PACE resolution recognizing Putin as dictator

Ekho Kavkaza reported the information.

The PACE resolution to declare Vladimir Putin illegitimate if he remains in power after the 2024 elections in Russia was supported only by a representative of the Georgian opposition Citizens party, Ketevan Turazashvili.

Members of the ruling Georgian Dream party ignored the vote. According to the head of the Georgian Dream delegation, Irakli Chikovani, some representatives of the ruling party were observing the elections in Poland, while he had other things to do.

"I am not going to coordinate the priorities of our activities with you, first of all. Secondly, I explained to the public and said that earlier, in different years, we attended PACE sessions in different compositions, so there is no subtext here. If we engage in discussions or dialogue with the Russian Federation, it is solely for the purpose of restoring our territorial integrity and improving the situation for our fellow citizens in the occupied territories," Chikovani said.

This is not the first time that Georgia's ruling party has not supported a PACE resolution. In 2022, they did not join the call to recognize Russia as a terrorist state.

• On October 13, at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, MPs supported a resolution officially recognizing Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a dictator and his regime as a dictatorship.

• The PACE includes representatives of 46 European states, including non-EU countries. Russia withdrew from the PACE in 2022 after launching a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine.