Dear Mister President,
My best regards on the occasion of Christmas and the New Year holiday! I wish happiness and happy returns to you and your family for the good of the Great America!
My name is Tamaz Vashakidze, I am a citizen of Georgia, ballet master, Companion of the Order of Honor, founder of the First “Chabukiani-Balanchine” international ballet art festival in Georgia, as well as founder of the International “Chabukiani-Balanchine” Foundation and the Theater of modern dance “New Georgian Ballet of Tamaz Vashakidze”.
I am a refugee on the territory of Russian Federation since the 26th of February, 2008.
In 2004, when the new Georgian authorities came into power, the persecution has started against me. First, in May 2004, Georgian authorities excluded me from creative activity, by releasing me from the duties of Artistic Director and teacher of the V. Chabukiani State Ballet Art School in Tbilisi, in fact leaving me without profession. And in November 2005 they initiated a criminal case against me as Director of the same Art School, which was open immediately after the world first night of my ballet “The Great Waltz” in the Moscow Concert Hall named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
After the first night I left immediately for Tbilisi for testimony and cooperation with the investigation. In spite of my good will and willingness to cooperate, Georgian authorities have doubled my persecution and as the result I found myself expelled from my mother country, having left my spouse and my three minor children without their sole breadwinner.
After I have been granted political asylum and refugee status in the Russian Federation (as per item 1.1 of the article 1 of the Federal Law “On Refugees” from the 26th of February, 2008) Georgian authorities have made a verdict based on fudged facts and false testimony, and on the 24th of September, 2008, I was sentenced in my absence by the City Court of Tbilisi to 10 years in prison. By doing so, the Court did not take into account any of the numerous documents that fully deflected accusations.
For 10 years now I've been living without my family, having an opportunity to see them only once a year for one month. It's hard to stand all this and I only live in hope.
During all these years my colleagues, representatives of Georgian intellectuals, and myself we addressed Georgian authorities on many occasions with the request of reconsidering my case and bringing justice in respect of myself and my family, but, unfortunately, we did not get any reply — neither positive, nor negative one.
Dear Mister President, I know about your attitude to justice and your infinite love for your family, and that is why I am asking for your assistance in solving my problem, I am asking you to address the authorities of Georgia in order to reconsider my case and to bring me back to my family, to my children.
Best regards,
Tamaz Vashakidze
+7 919 38 99 099
46A, Prospekt Lenina, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 620000, the Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera & Ballet Theater.