Georgian Prime Minister expresses willingness to cooperate with president and his team

Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili "unconditionally" and "unequivocally" condemned violence displayed by the protesters on February 8.

"The expression of civil protest, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, may only be non-violent and within the pale of laws", Georgian Prime Minister said on Sunday in a special statement in response to events that took place in front of the National Library of the Parliament of Georgia on evening of February 8.

The Prime Minister noted that on his behalf the Interior Minister takes measures to identify and punish those responsible for violent actions, as well as analyzes activity of police in order to improve measures to be taken in such cases.

Meanwhile, he noted that "it would be better" if President Mikheil Saakashvili had taken into account the proposal of the parliamentary majority and postponed his annual report in Parliament for two weeks later. Prime Minister also noticed few notable moments in the president's speech in his residence.

"If these statements were made by the president earlier, we could have prevented a number of complications. In particular, the president apologized to the people of Georgia for the mistakes made by him and his government in the past. President also recognized the fact that in the recent parliamentary elections, the people justly deprived his power, adding that in order to restore the confidence of the people, it is necessary to analyze the problems of the past and draw the right conclusions," Ivanishvili said, adding that Saakashvili should "move from words to actions" to gain credibility for his words and the words of others.

Pending resolution of constitutional matters, the PM expects the Parliament to prepare the interfractional agreement on priorities of Georgian foreign policy, stressing that a political agreement on this issue will help to speed up the Euro-Atlantic integration and contribute to irreversibility of policy of non-recognition of occupied territories and beginning of recovery of trade, economic and cultural relations with Russia.