Russian Foreign Ministry responds to Donald Tusk's take on Soviet collapse
Donald Tusk addressed the participants of the international conference, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative on July 11. Photo: European Union
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Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the President of European Council Donald Tusk who said the collapse of the Soviet Union was “a blessing" to Georgians, Poles, Ukrainians and the whole of Central and Eastern Europe, and also to Russians.
Maria Zakharova, head of the press office of the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote on the official Twitter page that the dissolution of the Soviet Union "provoked human tragedy".
#Zakharova: We would like to remind @eucopresident that the dissolution of the #USSR provoked human tragedy: tens of millions of our compatriots found themselves living in a foreign country overnight, like the Russian speakers in the Baltics where their rights are infringed upon pic.twitter.com/6IIGTSKo6C
— MFA Russia ???????? (@mfa_russia) July 11, 2019
Donald Tusk addressed the participants of the two-day Batumi International Conference, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative that opened earlier on July 11.
EaP is a joint initiative involving the EU, its member states and six Eastern European Partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The Eastern Partnership aims to increase open democracy, prosperity, and stability in the region.
“When I say Georgia, I mean freedom, when I say Georgia, I mean pride, when I say Georgia, I mean courage. You are a small country, but a great nation. You have achieved impossible things, because you were, despite all the differences, united around a common goal, that was a free, independent and modern state,” Tusk stated.
The foreign ministers of Poland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Armenia, Hungary, Czech, Moldova and UK have met with top Georgian politicians to strengthen economic and political ties with the country.
European Council President Donald Tusk says that the decision of Russia to ban direct flights to Georgia was “disproportionate and unjustified.” He said that Georgia has shown “devotion” to democratic reforms and the rule of law many times.
“Only 10 months after the end of the Russian-Georgian War, we understood that we needed partners in the post-Soviet space and that the freedom of our allies there is directly connected with the freedom of the EU,” Petricek stated during the 16th Batumi International Conference.
Twenty per cent more Hungarian tourists have visited Georgia this year, which is a good reason to launch direct flights between the two countries, Georgia Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze told Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Batumi, on the sidelines of the Batumi 16th International Conference.
The Batumi 16th International Conference, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative, has opened earlier today, with an “unprecedented number” of foreign guests, including the president of the European Council Donald Tusk, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reports.
The Georgian Patriarchate said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent explanation of how Georgia “engulfed” the currently Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions “has caused a negative reaction among our people”. "Such distortion of historic facts continues to deepen the existing conflicts”, the Patriarchate said.