By RIA Novosti
Strasbourg : The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has invited Georgia’s newly re-elected president to address the organization, despite protests from Russia, a Russian official said on Monday.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who received 53.47% of the vote in an early presidential election on January 5, is expected to make a speech at a PACE meeting on January 24, and to answer European parliamentarians’ questions.
“I regret the decision – it is purely political,” said Konstantin Kosachyov, first vice-chair of PACE’s Political Affairs Committee.
At a referendum held simultaneously with presidential elections on January 5, 69.8% of Georgians supported the opposition’s proposal to move the next parliamentary election forward from the fall of 2008 to the spring. The date of the parliamentary election is due to be announced by the president, who was inaugurated on Sunday.
An overwhelming 77% of the Georgian electorate also voted in favor of joining the NATO military alliance at the joint referendum-election.
The Russian PACE delegation described as “inadmissible” the practice of inviting a political leader to address the organization ahead of major political events in his country. Kosachyov said the invitation was an attempt, albeit indirect, to influence the country’s parliamentary election campaign.