Georgia Messenger reports:

The Madrid Club, an independent democracy promotion international organisation made up of 68 distinguished former heads of state and government from around the world, unanimously passed a decree on October 21, condemning the ongoing anti-Georgian campaign in Russia. Addressing the Club, Georgian Speaker of Parliament, Nino Burjanadze, said that Russia had been attempting to misinform the international community about the current crisis. "It is very important that everybody-the political elite and the rest of society-to know what the main problem really is," Burjanadze said.

Speaking about Russian President Vladimir Putin's Friday meeting with EU leaders-where Putin laid the blame for the crisis firmly with Georgia-she said "Yesterday, at the European Union summit, an attempt to re-accent the problem was undertaken. To tell you the truth, I found out for the first time that there are no problems between Georgia and Russia. It appears that the economic blockade and sanctions against Georgia have been introduced not by Russia, but by someone else," Burjanadze told Georgian journalists on Friday. Burjanadze stressed that the international community should know the truth about the situation, noting "people that have serious moral and political authority, whose words carry a lot of weight in their country and internationally, are well represented in the Madrid Club."

The former heads of state who make up the club passed a joint resolution saying that "Russia must not pressurise small countries". Javier Solana, the European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs arrived in Madrid following the EU-Russia informal summit in Lahti, Finland. He called for Saakashvili and Putin to hold talks.