“My deputy and I could not have exchanged 200 Georgian prisoners if our side had not taken any prisoners at all,” he added. Alexander Tabatadze, chairman of the parliamentary Defence and Security Committee, said Baramidze’s comments could damage Georgia’s international standing. Tabatadze also said the wording insulted veterans of the Abkhazia war and those who were killed in the fighting. The opposition also criticises the remarksNika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, said Baramidze’s comments were inaccurate. Zakareishvili himself worked on prisoner exchanges during the Abkhazia war.