Why Georgia did not participate in the adoption of the PACE resolution on Russia

PACE resolution on Russia

The Georgian delegation did not participate in the adoption of the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognizing the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide. According to members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, their official visit to Strasbourg ended yesterday, they have already bought return tickets, and therefore could not attend today’s voting.

The voting took place yesterday, April 27, at the PACE headquarters in Strasbourg. Representatives of the Georgian opposition also did not participate in it.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated in its resolution that there are hallmarks of genocide in the forcible illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and their “Russification”.

In the same resolution, PACE demanded the safe return of Ukrainian children, the prevention of new deportations, and the prosecution of all those responsible.

According to the decree, the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia was “clearly planned and systematically organized” as part of state policy, and its goal is “the disappearance of all ties and features of the Ukrainian identity of children.”

The Assembly called on the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to collect data on Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia.

For the forced and illegal deportation of children to Russia, on March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, along with an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Return tickets were bought weeks in advance because we had a specific agenda. We voted on all resolutions, so there are no exceptions to this depending on specific cases and meetings, this visit ended yesterday and we left, and the charge that we are not joining something is speculation,” Givi Mikanadze , member of GD delegation, said.

Another party member, Beka Davituliani, said he does not know why his colleagues did not participate in the vote, although he does not rule out that in the resolution “was written something else” that they do not support.

“Perhaps there were other points in the resolution that we do not support. For example, one of the previous resolutions spoke not only about supporting Ukraine, but about releasing Saakashvili. At that time our delegation said that it would support the resolution if this paragraph were removed. But they didn’t remove it, and we couldn’t support that resolution… I haven’t talked to my colleagues who were in Strasbourg yet, and so I don’t know now if there were any grounds for this,” Davituliani says.

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Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on Twitter:

“Georgia’s ruling party preferred Putin’s dream to the dream of its people. Not a single representative of the ruling party of Georgia in PACE voted to condemn Putin and Lukashenko. It’s time for the world to wake up and see whom they serve. The time has come to impose sanctions on Ivanishvili.”

Georgia’s ruling party has chosen Putin’s dream over the dreams of its people. Not a single representative of the Georgian ruling party in PACE voted to condemn Putin and Lukashenko. It’s time for the world to wake up and see who they’re serving. It’s time for sanctions against…

— Oleksiy Goncharenko (@GoncharenkoUa) April 28, 2023

According to Goncharenko, PACE also approved an amendment stating that President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko was involved in the genocide against Ukrainians through forcible deportation, since many Ukrainian children have been moved to the territory of Belarus.

Goncharenko adds that the resolution also welcomes the decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.