TBILISI, DFWatch – The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly again says Russia’s practice of issuing passport in territories it occupies in Georgia is a violation of international rules.

According to the Georgian parliament’s press office, relating information it received from Strasbourg, the report from the observer mission for Russia’s presidential elections was reviewed at a session chaired by Tiny Kox.

The report underlines that when Russia opened election districts in the Georgian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, this was a violation of international rules.

The report says that making this decision without agreeing with the Georgian government violates Georgia’s territorial integrity, as it is recognized by international community as well as by the CoE Parliamentary Assembly.

In addition, report says that the population living in these regions has Russian passports, which is a political result of the Russian government’s ‘passportization’. This action was criticized in the EU’s investigation into the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, called the Tagliavini report.

The bureau approved the report by the observer mission. During the discussion, Giorgi Kandelaki from the Georgian delegation made a speech.