Putin: ‘No Intention to Meddle in Georgia’s Internal Affairs’
Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, said Moscow’s contacts with some of Georgian opposition leaders did not mean interfering into country’s internal affairs.
“We deem Georgian people as friendly people towards the Russian people,” he said in an interview with a Russian-language Mir TV, transcript of which was posted on the Russian government’s website.
“Special relations have been built [between Russia and Georgia] throughout centuries. Georgia is an Orthodox Christian nation, which is close to us spiritually and historically. What has happened in recent years is a result of – to say the least of it – faulty if not criminal politics of the present Georgian leadership.”
“We have no intention whatsoever to interfere in Georgia’s internal political affairs. And those meetings with the representatives of the present Georgian opposition do not suggest that we want to interfere in Georgia’s internal affairs; those [meetings] prove that the Georgian society understands – and we are glad about it – that it is necessary to build at least normal interstate relations,” Putin said.
“We do want it and we are establishing a dialogue with those people, whom it was rather difficult to talk with quite recently,” he said, referring to ex-PM of Georgia Zurab Nogaideli and ex-parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze, both of whom he has met recently in Moscow.
“Nino Burjanadze was politically very close with the current [Georgian] President and the fact that we have established a dialogue with various Georgian political forces is a good premise to establish normal interstate relations with Georgia,” Putin added.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
