TBILISI, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - The National Olympic Committee of Georgia will hold an extraordinary session on Thursday to decide on the country’s participation in 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia’s resort city of Sochi, the committee’s press service said.
Members of Georgia’s former ruling party United National Movement, led by President Mikheil Saakashvili, earlier voiced their proposal to boycott the Olympics in Russia.
However, the United National Movement (UNM) was defeated by the Georgian Dream opposition coalition, led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, in parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012.
The new ruling party favors Georgia’s participation with Ivanishvili repeatedly saying that “Georgia will certainly take part in the Olympics in Sochi.”
Leri Khabelov, the president of the Georgian National Olympic Committee, said in February that “Georgia is a member of the big Olympic family, recognizes the Olympic charter and will be participating in the 2014-Olympics in Sochi.”
Georgia broke off diplomatic ties with Russia after the two nations fought a brief war in August 2008 over South Ossetia, which, like Abkhazia, broke away from Georgia after the Soviet collapse.
