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Thursday, 13 May 2004
GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS WITH COUNCIL OF EUROPE HEAD
By empty (5/13/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Salome Zourabichvili met in Strasbourg on 12 May with Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer but did not discuss some Georgian politicians\' demands that the council\'s permanent representative in Tbilisi, Platon Nikolov, be recalled, Georgian media reported. President Saakashvili criticized both Nikolov and Schwimmer personally last week in connection with the crisis in relations with Adjaran leader Abashidze. Saakashvili said that \"overpaid bureaucrats\" have no right to criticize the Georgian leadership, which, Saakashvili claimed, pays their salaries.
Salome Zourabichvili met in Strasbourg on 12 May with Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer but did not discuss some Georgian politicians\' demands that the council\'s permanent representative in Tbilisi, Platon Nikolov, be recalled, Georgian media reported. President Saakashvili criticized both Nikolov and Schwimmer personally last week in connection with the crisis in relations with Adjaran leader Abashidze. Saakashvili said that \"overpaid bureaucrats\" have no right to criticize the Georgian leadership, which, Saakashvili claimed, pays their salaries. But the Georgian Foreign Ministry divulged on 12 May that Tbilisi owes a total of 1.2 million euros ($1.42 million) in membership fees to the Council of Europe. (RFE/RL)