Moscow Says Saakashvili’s Calls for Dialogue ‘PR Move’

President Saakashvili’s statement that he is willing to engage in dialogue with Russia “is a PR move, a new clumsy attempt to portray himself as a constructive and peace-loving politician,” Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said on February 17.

“These are not first remarks by Saakashvili about desire to cooperate and to have a dialogue with Russia. It is hardly possible to perceive these statements seriously, at least because they are accompanied by rude anti-Russian rhetoric, confrontational and insulting attacks in address of the Russian Federation,” he said, when asked to comment on Saakashvili’s statement made during his annual state of the nation address in the Parliament on February 11.

“It is enough to recall his interview with the Independent newspaper and his speech at the First Caucasian News channel in which he referred to Russia as enemy… and sacrilegiously linked terrorist act in Domodedovo with recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia; he also claimed that ‘the war with Russia is not yet over’,” he said.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)