The President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili calls on the Prime Minister to convene the Security Council.

As the President stated at the briefing, the issues that must be discussed at the Council are the tightening of border control and revision of the visa regime, as well as the use of lists of sanctioned persons at the border.

"As the country's President and Commander-in-Chief, I am obliged to get to know the development of events and all possible effects on the country's interests. Therefore, I got acquainted with the information provided by the commander of our defense forces, Major General Matiashvili, about the developments in Russia. Unfortunately, I could not get the necessary information from any other responsible state body, not even from the Minister of Internal Affairs, who is responsible for controlling our border and at the same time as the Secretary of the Security Council, should be aware of important issues of the country's security. I could not get the necessary information either from the head of the State Security Service, one of whose directions, according to the law of his agency, is to protect the country from external threats; the same goes with the head of the intelligence service, who is mandated by law to determine foreign risks and provide the country's officials with the necessary intelligence information. Not only the information could not be received, but also the contact could not be made, which is alarming in this situation. Therefore, I am forced to publicly call on the Prime Minister to immediately convene the Security Council. I believe that there are several important issues that need to be discussed and time is running out. One is to tighten border controls and revise the visa regime. The second is the use of lists of sanctioned persons at the border. An information vacuum should not be created, the public should receive all the information it needs in a timely and detailed manner about what measures the government is taking to protect the country's security, so as not to create groundless fears and spread false information. The Council should also consider the existing reactions in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, in order not to allow the separatists to use these events in order to incite misplaced fears of Georgia among the population. Our policy has not changed and will not change, Georgia is not going to return territories by force, this must be said and repeated. Finally, it is necessary to continue the exchange of information and close communication with our partners," the President said.