The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili made comments on the congress of Georgians residing in Russia, which was held in Moscow yesterday.

"They say that there are million Georgians living in Russia - although there are not as many - and in a 310-seat hall they could hardly gather 191 participants from all over Russia. I know for sure that they were bringing additional people from Krasnodar. They could not even fill the smallest hall in Moscow and the Russian President changed his decision last minute and did not go to the event and called 10 examined Georgians into the Cremlin to talk about Georgia.

I want to tell the Russian government and the President: if they want to talk with the Georgian people, they should talk with the government, elected by the Georgian people and we can discuss any issue after Russia de-occupies the Georgian territories and it retreats from the occupied territories.

I want to thank all the Georgian citizens of all ethnicities who left Georgia and are in Russia now; they acted with dignity...

Just imagine, the Russian authorities have in fact failed to find anyone - although there have been rare exceptions - who would have confronted own country Georgia and this amounts to civil heroism in today's Russia.

I would like to address all our Georgian fellow citizens living in Russia, all our citizens of various ethnicities that left Georgia - Georgians, Ossetians, Abkhazs, Armenians, Azerbaijani. These people acted in a very dignified way when they were deported to Georgia by the cargo airplanes, when they were arrested on the streets, children were caught at schools, and these people again acted in a dignified way today!

In today's Russia it is an example of civic heroism. We appreciate these people, their deeds in the development of our country and if they wish to return to Georgia, we will welcome them with open hearts and great enthusiasm. I want to express my admiration in respect to these people. A couple of days ago Russian TV companies held an interrogation of ten thousand of our fellow citizens. The question was what is their opinion concerning Georgian-Russian politics. 78 percent of the Georgians living in Russia at present supported Georgian policy. Focus your attention on this figure. In these toughest conditions they quite openly expressed their opinion concerning their native land, its freedom and independence. By the way this is a message to the local politicians. The Georgians living in Russia know perfectly well what happens in Russia today. These very people have the most competent idea about how to maintain equal relations with the Russian federation. I think that if we listen to them, the situation will be far better", stated Mikheil Saakashvili.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia