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Margvelashvili promises Georgia will do its best to reconcile with Russia

Meanwhile, political persecution in Georgia promised to be abolished

AP Photo/Sergei Grits

AP Photo/Sergei Grits

TBILISI, October 28. (Itar-Tass) – Gergia will “do everything in order to defuse tension in its relations with Russia,” presidential candidate Georgy Margvelashvili, leading in the elections, told a press conference here on Monday. According to preliminary figures provided by the Central Election Commission, he is winning the election by a landslide.

Margvelashvili said that Georgia will adhere to the correct and deliberate policy of normalizing relations with Russia and will be constructive to the fullest degree. “Throughout the year, after Parliamentary elections of October 1, 2012, the new government has taken the first steps to restoring normal relations with Russia, including those with regards to trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian relations.

Domestic promises

TBILISI, October 28 (Itar-Tass) - There will be no political persecution in the country under the new president, presidential, he added.

When asked about Mikheil Saakashvili’s fate, whether criminal cases would be opened against him, Margvelashvili, noting that president had no powers of a prosecutor, said that there would be no political persecution in Georgia, as there was not so after last year's parliamentary elections and after the new government came into power.

"Political persecution is at variance with the conception and principles of a modern European state, and it will not be in Georgia," he stressed.

A rule-of-law state is what the United States and Europe are based on, and it is the foundation of Georgia's statehood, he noted.

Background

When Margvelashvili was Georgia’s Education Minister, he engaged former Structural and Economic Reform Minister, businessmen Kahha Bendukidze, accusing the latter of violating the law on prohibiting final expulsion of students from higher education institutions for failing to pay their tuition fees.

In March of 2013 Margvelashvili was accused of political involvement into the operation of Georgia’s Agrarian University, which is controlled by a foundation belonging to Bendukidze. The Education Ministry has frozen authorization of the Agrarian University, which provoked public backlash in the country.

In April Margvelashvili was accused of populism due to the announcement made by the Ministry to give out 650,000 free textbooks to students. This decision was met with a cold shoulder from publishers, who announced that the Ministry’s plans would be a significant blow to the publishing industry.

Margvelashvili is a known proponent of closer Georgia-US ties; he also shares a pro-European stance. He aims to support unity of the Georgian nation, he is against independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and for noramization of relations with Russia.

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