Q: There were media reports that during his recent joint visit with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, R.Sikorski, to Georgia where parliamentary elections will be held on 1 October, Carl Bildt, head of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, warned the opposition that possible street demonstrations against the elections results would be counter-productive. How would you comment on that?
A: We took note of these statements by the head of Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is renowned for his active support of “Arab revolutions” and protest campaigns in other countries. That is why attempts to a priori restrain reaction to possible violations of democratic norms in the course of elections in Georgia appear as, to say the least, inconsistency in the Swedish Minister’s views. By the way, he will be on a private visit in Moscow in the coming days and we will ask him about his selective approach to the right of people for self-expression.
