South Ossetia’s de-facto leader not officially invited to Sochi

Georgia’s Special Representative for Relations with Russia announced South Ossetia’s de-facto leader was not officially invited to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

Georgian media outlets earlier stated the de-facto leader Leonid Tibilov had been is officially invited to the international sporting competition however the Prime Minister’s Special Representative to Russia responded that this was not the case at a special press conference today.

"We check this information with Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the International Olympic Committee and they once again confirmed, that country representatives and participating athletes were officially invited to the Sochi Olympic Games,” Zurab Abashidze announced.

He said the officials’ comments were an important message and confirmed that Georgia’s decision to participate in Sochi Olympics was correct. And if Georgia’s expectation was different to the reality, the country reserved the right to make a suitable decision to protect the country and the athletes’ prestige, he added.

Four Georgian athletes will compete at the Sochi Games. The first part of the 19-strong delegation left yesterday, February 4, and the larger group are expected to depart tomorrow, February 6, said Abashidze.

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili highlighted issues surrounding Georgia’s attendance at the Sochi Olympic in his interview with Euronews, broadcast and published on February 4.

No Georgian Governmental officials will attend the Sochi Olympics but athletes would participate in it, Garibashvili stated.

"We made a decision that Georgian athletes will participate in the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. It was a very hard decision for us because [Russia] violated Georgia’s occupied territory of Abkzazia. Therefore, since we do not have diplomatic relations with Russia it was hard for us to make this decision, however we made this decision. We must separate sport from politics and we said athletes will go there and we did so,” Garibashvili said.