Occupied territories of Georgia
In April 2013, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said after meeting with his Georgian counterpart Maia Panjikidze that Russia respected only a state "that is larger" and therefore the Czech Republic could not mediate between Russia and Georgia. As for Georgia’s future with regard to the occupied territories, the Czech Foreign Minister said Georgia should maintain contacts with them. "It is difficult when your territories are occupied, but sometimes you have to wait for years, even decades before the window of possibilities will be opened for you. I do not know when that time will come, but it will necessarily come", he said.
Occupied territories of Georgia
The first European country to officially recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the territories under Russian military occupation, became Lithuania. The Lithuanian Seimas adopted a resolution condemning Russian occupation of Georgian territories on 1 June 2010. The resolution said that Russia's use of the local puppet regimes to control the regions constituted a violation of international law. Viktor Zubkov, first deputy Prime Minister of Russia, said that the resolution "distorted all the facts of the August 2008 events".