I want to welcome you all!

I welcome Iveri, Levan and Koba!

Today we rescued these young people from separatist custody.

I want to welcome our three young patriots - just yesterday they were little boys and now they are men. I want to praise the courage, self-sacrifice and resolve that these young people have shown. We were all concerned about their fate. Yesterday I met their parents, because our decision to ensure their release was firm. We explained unequivocally to the self-proclaimed separatist authorities that we would spare no efforts to secure their release.

We got this through their skull.

Lawlessness and impudence have their limits.

There is no administrative, let alone other type of border with Abkhazia on the Inguri River. The state border is the Psou River [on the Abkhazia section of the Georgian-Russian border].

Establishing any such borders - and let alone arresting people for violating these borders and terrorizing them for peacefully expressing their opinions - is the latest in a long series of crimes being committed in Abkhazia.

I want to welcome our boys and bestow Koba Rigvava, Levan Ghachava and Iveri Qorshia with the medal of honour for their self-sacrifice.

I want to welcome these young people, as well as their families and the thousands of other students who passionately supported them and ultimately achieved their release.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia