PACE Secretary General: both Russia and Georgia are guilty of Caucasian conflict

Both Georgia and Russia should share responsibility for the war in South Caucasus and its consequences, as stated by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

In Mr Davis' opinion, "in the given situation, Georgia can't be considered to be aggressor". He said today when addressing journalists: "I'm rather critical of Georgia's actions in this situation, since it had broken its obligations to settle disputable problems peacefully, same as Russia, by the way. However, Georgia can't be treated as aggressor, as it conducted a military operation not against another sovereign state, but in its own territory, against South Ossetia."

According to his version, this operation resembles the actions of Russian authorities in Chechnya several years ago in many aspects. "Therefore, we can't treat one party in this conflict as an angel, and the other - as a devil, in this situation - both are sinners," the ITAR-TASS quotes Terry Davis as saying.

The PACE believes that Russia's August counterthrust in the central and western Georgia and in Abkhazia did not meet the principles of proportionality and the international law. This is the topic of the draft resolution on Russia-Georgia relations to be discussed by the Assembly on October, 2nd.

"The Assembly believes that from the viewpoint of the international law such concept like 'defence of one's citizens abroad' is unacceptable, and expresses its concern of the policy pursued by Russian authorities in relation to other countries, where significant numbers of Russian citizens live," runs the draft as quoted by the IA "News-Georgia".