Mikheil Saakashvili

Greetings!

I would like to greet our guest, the President of Poland.

Today we celebrate St George's day, this day coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Rose Revolution.

We have working spirit and if you were observing today's events, you could see that I met with the staff of one enterprise.

Today the President of Poland Lekh Kachinski visited us.

We had a chance to visit and see the family that had suffered during the Russian aggression, the family that was obliged to leave their own house and move to a new house.

We have declared "a week of solidarity" in Georgia, Lekh Kachinski joined this action.

We saw a border-line in the middle of Georgia laid out by the 21 century's occupants and intervenes. As we saw none of them liked to see me or the President of Poland, and they expressed in the wildest way.

Those European politicians who state that some part of agreement is fulfilled were once again reminded.

I think it is obvious that aggression continues in Georgia, so the agreement between Russia and Europe is violated.

Everything is clear - in the 21 century, right in the middle of Georgia there stand Russian occupants, that have no legal or moral right to violate people's rights.

They stand where the majority of the population is expelled.

I want to finish my greetings in a pleasant note - I am grateful and satisfied that our cooperation develops.

In Akhalgori I saw how brave the President of Poland is.

He was very calm during this abnormal threat.

I want to thank him, I w2ant to congratulate you once again and wish you many happy days in future.

Lekh Kachinski

Greetings!

Today we saw that the six-point agreement signed in August is not fulfilled. We saw the demonstration of this fact today.

This is very far from the reality that I have to tell my friends in America, to my friends of member or non-member countries of the European Union.

Everyone has to envisage this fact and take a decision, before it is too late.

They have to envisage this all! It is not late still, tomorrow it might be late, especially if we see that situation changes all around the world.

We see, that financial crisis reaches its peak and many people suffer because of this problem.

Among them, it has a great negative influence on those, who profit from natural gas and oil.

At the same time, we have to prove, that a paradox is happening. For example events taking place in Kaliningrad recently. It has to change a lot of many my European friends' minds.

People must be sure of what they do.

We must talk about whats happening today.

Today, on the Georgian territory, in the middle of Georgia, on the territory, which was controlled by the Georgian government before August events, fire was open.

I want to say on my side, that I have traveled in many countries, many guests visited Poland and we celebrated many events.

I will travel to Asia soon and I was thinking, whether to visit Georgia or not, how right this decision could possibly be.

I have learned much and saw much during the travel on that tiny road.

I do not regret, what I saw an hour ago - this is my impression.

Questions:

Kristoph Zasada, Journalist:

I have a question to President Kachinski. You have visited the village where there are IDPs and at the same time Russians shoot the machineguns. What do you think about this fact specifically?

One question to President Saakashvili: There are talks about your diplomatic protocol. They told the journalists that they were the first ones who were supposed to go to that territory. What happened, I am interested, was it planned in advance?

Lekh Kachinski:

I want to say, what I have already said once. I agreed to come to Georgia and I have come.

I heard the Russian speech from our car. I know a Russian block-post was nearby and Russians did not lave those territories. I want to make a very strict statement - some people might say, that Georgians are standing there and they have arranged this provocation. This statement will not be serious. This is what happening in Georgia today. Right now the President of Poland is on the territory of a friendly country and some people start shooting. It is difficult to say whether they were shooting in air or not. The improvisation on this matter is not right.

Mikheil Saakashvili:

I want to say that there were no Georgian journalists there. My private cameraman was with me, he accompanies me permanently. So exactly this person witnessed that fact. Georgian journalists were waiting for us in the village, which is in about twenty kilometers from the place of incident. We went to that place by ourselves. I wanted to show the President one spot and I offered him to go there. I was not expecting that Russians would shoot. This was an official convoy. European observers visit this road permanently. Usually, they do not shoot at them. This was a provocation. My intent was not at all to create threat to the Polish President's life. The reality is that we have relationship with people, who are very hard to predict. In summer, when President Kachinski was intending to come to Georgia Russians did not permit him to enter their air space. The President of Poland was very strict then and required to come to Georgia. Russians said that not all the Presidents should come to Georgia because it was not safe. Despite this fact they came and attended the demonstration. Despite all, Lekh Kachinski came down to the Georgian people and addressed them with emotions.

So there always will be people, who will say that everything was pre-planned, but reality is different.

Lekh Kachinski:

We visited a newly built village. They say that this place was built for me. Let's not tell fairy tales. What happened - has happened. There are many people, who do not like the games of politics, but there are people, who can hurt your country.

Mikheil Saakashvili:

Polish journalists were accompanying the President of Poland. No one intended to create threat to them. No one has the right to start shooting. If it was an improvisation, then it was improvised by the Russian side. They create provocations on the government level. You had a chance to see it all.

Keti Bojgua, GPB:

First of all I want to express my happiness about the fact that everything finished peacefully.

Poland was among those countries that agreed to renew talks with Russia. I mean EU-Russian negotiations. What do you think, after this incident, how should international society speak to Russia?

Lekh Kachinski:

I cannot say that Poland always agreed on such issues. At the last session of EU Ministers the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland was not against the restoration of negotiations with Russia. I have stated my own position about this issue many times. The Foreign Minister of Poland and I have different opinions about some issues. I have never changed my position about this issue. I am grateful for my counterparts that Poland became a member of EU. Poland benefits a lot from EU. We observed a fast progress in Poland and it happened by the support of EU. A year and a half ago we first met at Energy Summit. Journalists said that this meeting was not successful. Then we had a meeting in EU and in Baku. There were some skeptical approaches. Several days ago we were in Baku and the journalist said that Krakow meeting was successful. Finally, what is happening in Georgia today is aimed to demolish Krakow's initiative. EU and many other states support this achievement. There are many projects and ideas that are connected to the transportation of natural gas and oil to Europe. I do not say anything about internal relationships in Poland, this is clear for everyone.

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia