Initiative to restore diplomatic relations with Russia cannot come from NPOs, Georgian experts assert

The NPO coalition "Eurasian Choice-Georgia" has collected 2000 out of required 30,000 signatures under a legislative proposal to restore diplomatic relations with Russia.

On June 1, members of the coalition "Eurasian Choice-Georgia" announced starting to collect signatures to restore diplomatic relations with Russia and abolish the law of occupation. According to Archil Chkoidze, the leader of the coalition, they expect to collect 30,000 signatures required for the legislative proposal within six weeks. Then, the activists will hand the collected signatures to the Georgian Parliament for consideration.

David Darchiashvili, a Georgian MP from the "United National Movement" Party, has stated that the initiative of the coalition "Eurasian Choice-Georgia" is directed against the stability in the country.

In his turn, Georgy Volsky, Chairman of the parliamentary faction of the "Georgian Dream", believes that the consideration of the issue is closely associated with the political cooperation, which is limited by "barbed wire" (in the territory of Georgia, near the administrative border of South Ossetia and the Shida Kartli Region, the South Ossetian side is installing barbed wire to mark the border, note of the "Caucasian Knot").

However, political analyst Tornike Sharashenidze believes that the issue of restoration of diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation will not be raised until the restoration of the Georgia's territorial integrity.

See earlier reports: "Georgia hosts rally demanding to restore diplomatic relations with Russia", "Roundtable: Georgia is under threat of worsened relations with Russia because of situation in Ukraine", "Georgia's public opinion about Russia was affected by events in Crimea, local experts believe".