Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s claim Wednesday that Moscow was behind opposition protests in Georgia.
“Moscow views this step by the Georgian authorities as an irresponsible provocation,” the ministry said in a statement. “Saakashvili seems confident that Georgian citizens must excuse all his wrongdoings.”
Georgian police used truncheons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse opposition protests in the capital, Tbilisi. Saakashvili said that tough action was necessary to prevent the ex-Soviet nation from sliding into chaos and blamed Russia for instigating the unrest.
Saakashvili accused Russian special services of funding and directing the Georgian opposition and said that several Russian diplomats would be expelled.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that “horror stories about Russian spies” and claims that Moscow was behind the opposition protests were part of Saakashvili’s efforts to cast Moscow as an enemy.
“Once again, the Georgian authorities are trying to replace a responsible and honest approach to numerous internal problems with banal attempts to blame everything on plots by ‘an external enemy’ and accuse dissenters of being its agents,” the ministry said.
It said that Moscow would protect Russia’s citizens in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and act as a “guarantor of peace and order in the region.”
In what sounded like a call on the United States, the ministry urged “those who have direct influence on Tbilisi to warn the Georgian leadership from further destructive steps fraught with unpredictable consequences.” It did not name any nation, the IHT reports.
