Ruling Party MPs on Release of Teens and Ex-PM Nogaideli’s Role

Lawmakers from the ruling party said that the release of three Georgian teenagers by “banditry regime” in Tskhinvali was “a very positive fact”, but also added that attempts to link this release to former PM and now opposition politician Zurab Nogaideli was simply part of Moscow’s policy of seeding among Georgian society mistrust towards the Georgian authorities.  

Nogaideli, who now leads an opposition party Movement for Fair Georgia, was in Tskhinvali on December 19. His party’s press office released a statement that his talks with leader of breakaway region, Eduard Kokoity, were “successful” as three Georgian teens were released. Nogaideli accompanied released teenagers over the administrative border. Nogaideli said that Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, and Russia’s official human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, who were also in Tskhinvali, played an important role in securing release of three Georgian minors.

“It is obvious that the Kremlin is sparing no efforts to seed sense of unacceptability among the Georgian society towards its own authorities; it is done so obviously that I think this trend is clear for everyone. And the issue of detained teenagers has also become part of this dirty speculation for Russia,” a lawmaker from the ruling party, Davit Darchiashvili, told Rustavi 2 TV on December 19.

Nogaideli said on December 19, that he had discussed the issue of release of the Georgian teenagers during his talks with the Russian officials when he visited Moscow earlier this week. He also said told journalists in the village of Ergneti at the administrative border that in Moscow he had agreed that he would be contacted immediately when the decision on release of the teenagers would have been taken.

“So it went as it was agreed. Last night David Sanakoev [South Ossetian leader’s special envoy for human rights] informed me via phone and I arrived today in Tskhinvali… Eduard Kokoity announced right in the beginning of our conversation that he would release all three minors,” Nogaideli said.

A lawmaker from the ruling party, Giorgi Gabashvili, said that the release of teenagers was “a result of the pressure, which the Georgian authorities were exerting on Russia through [Georgia’s] allies, including through various European structures.”

“As far as Mr. Nogaideli’s visit to Tskhinvali and visits of representatives of non-governmental organizations and politicians in Tskhinvali is concerned, it is not normal and it can not be welcomed when Georgian politicians and figures are in some sort legitimizing the banditry regime existing in South Ossetia,” MP Gabashvili told Rustavi 2 TV on December 19.

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