The targeted Russophobic narrative in Georgia inevitably brings about a strong public reaction, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2019) The targeted Russophobic narrative in Georgia inevitably brings about a strong public reaction, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing on Wednesday.On Sunday, the Georgian Rustavi 2 broadcaster journalist Giorgi Gabunia opened his show "Post Scriptum" with a profanity-loaded monologue targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. Commenting on the incident, Peskov said that the escalating Russophobia in Georgia resulted from Tbilisi's policy of conniving at radical and extremist forces.
"No, it does not. The outrageous Russophobic insults inevitably lead to a broad public reaction. You see this unanimous stance among the public representatives, parliament members, and you see that ordinary citizens also react rather angrily to it. So these are absolutely different dimensions, so to say. Targeted insults is one thing, and the public reaction to it is another thing," Peskov said when asked if his words that the Georgian government is responsible for what takes place on Georgian television mean that the Russian government, too, is responsible for what takes place on Russian television.
Hours after the tv show was aired, hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Rustavi 2 building in Tbilisi, demanding Gabunia's dismissal and claiming the stunt had been orchestrated by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Both incumbent President Salome Zurabishvili and Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze rushed to condemn Gabunia's demarche, while the Georgian Foreign Ministry denounced it as an attempt to put further strain Russian-Georgian relations.
The Russian Foreign Ministry harshly condemned the verbal assault against the Russian state and leadership on Georgian TV and said it expected an adequate reaction from Tbilisi.
On Tuesday, Rustavi 2 said it would not fire Gabunia, who had been suspended for two months.
Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi worsened in 2008 after Russia recognized former Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and helped to protect the self-proclaimed republics from Georgian troops that tried to re-establish control over the territories. The situation escalated last month, as massive protests broke out in Tbilisi after a Russian lawmaker among the participants of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy addressed the national legislature from the speaker's seat. Clashes prompted Russia to stop air traffic to Georgia over security concerns.
