Epress.am News from Armenia
Georgia is preparing a campaign against the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, developing as-yet unspecified measures that analysts warned might fuel violence in the Caucasus, reports The Moscow Times.
Three committees of the Georgian parliament met behind closed doors last week to discuss the campaign, which may call on the international community to relocate the games for security, environmental and historical reasons, news reports said.
“We should take all possible efforts to inform the international community and seek for relocation of the Olympics from Sochi to a different venue,” lawmaker Shota Malashkhia said, news site Newsgeorgia.ru reported.
The parliament said on its web site that the committees are supposed to develop elements for the campaign that will be submitted to the entire chamber for approval.
Lawmaker Nugzar Tsiklauri said talks were already being held with Chechens, internally displaced people and Abkhazia’s exiled government, Newsgeorgia.ru reported. He did not elaborate.
Malashkhia said a full-scale international boycott of the Sochi Olympics was “highly unlikely,” but added that Georgia hoped to receive support from the European Union, which has criticized Russia’s policy toward Georgia.