The Georgian Foreign Ministry has slammed the insulting remarks made by Georgian journalist Giorgi Gabunia about Russian President Vladimir Putin live on television as an attempt to sour already complicated relations between Georgia and Russia.
On Sunday evening, Gabunia opened his program Post Scriptum, broadcast by Rustavi 2, with a monologue about Putin, using extremely obscene language. The journalist’s words have already been condemned by Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili and Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze.
“We condemn the remarks [made] by Rustavi 2 [journalist], which have nothing to do with the freedom of speech and are pure provocation, which is aimed at adding even more tension to already complicated Georgian-Russian relations,” the ministry said in a statement published on its official website.
The ministry has also called upon the international community and all organizations that are dealing with the freedom of the media to give an appropriate response to the journalist’s words.
The relations between the two countries have been especially tense ever since Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states in August 2008 and helped to protect the republics from Georgian troops that tried to re-establish control over the territories.
The bilateral relations further deteriorated in late June after mass rallies with anti-Russian sentiments were held in Tbilisi after a Russian lawmaker addressed Georgian parliament in Russian and while seated in the speaker’s seat.
(UNI)
