Georgian authorities have canceled the repetition of the “Night of Gavrilov”
The meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will be moved from Tbilisi to Strasbourg at the request of the Georgian side in order to prevent the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the country.
Leading researcher at the Center for Euro-Atlantic Security at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies, Sergei Markedonov, writes about this in his blog.
“Sergei Lavrov will not come to Tbilisi in May. The discussion about the possible consequences of the visit of the Russian Foreign Minister to the capital of Georgia can be considered closed. According to his Georgian colleague David Zalkaliani, the meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will be moved to one of the European capitals - Strasbourg,” Markedonov notes.
He points out that the Georgian authorities themselves asked to postpone this event, although Georgia chairs the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
The expert believes that by making such a decision, Georgia demonstrated several very important points.
“Firstly, the critical dependence of one’s foreign policy course on internal situations. The ruling Georgian Dream party fears that the arrival of Sergei Lavrov (not in itself, not in the context of a bilateral agenda, but in the format of the Council of Europe) will provoke the opposition to repeat the “night of Gavrilov.” Perhaps on a larger scale and with greater consequences not only for Russian-Georgian relations, but for regional security as a whole.
Secondly, adherence to “European values” turns out to be less important against this background than geopolitical “traditionalism”. Territorial integrity turns out to be a fundamental issue for Georgian politicians, no matter pro-government or opposition. And participation in the Council of Europe is something significant rhetorically, but something that can be neglected in practice,” says the political scientist.
“Thus, the Georgian authorities decided not to tempt fate. They will not give anyone a reason to doubt their patriotism. The decision to move an important Council of Europe event to the capital of Alsace can be presented as an unwillingness to sacrifice principles. What is counted on is not the gratitude of voters during the upcoming parliamentary elections,” Markedonov sums up.
As PolitNavigator reported, due to the proposed visit to Tbilisi of Sergei Lavrov were expected in Tbilisi anti-Russian riots. The Georgian opposition demanded that Lavrov be held accountable for visiting Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Previously in Tbilisi there was an anti-Russian pogrom from participation in the work of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy of State Duma deputy Sergei Gavrilov.
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