President of Russia Vladimir Putin said that there is no need to impose further sanctions on Georgia following the verbal outburst of Rustavi 2 TV moderator Giorgi Gabunia against him on 7 July, TASS reported.
“As for imposing sanctions against Georgia, I would not do it out of respect for the Georgian people. For the sake of these people and for the sake of restoring full-fledged relations between Russia and Georgia, I would not do anything that would complicate the relations," the Russian leader emphasized.
“One of them went and blurted something out, pretending to be someone, though no one had heard about him before and now everyone is talking about him so he has achieved his goal. He has been suspended from work for two months; he may go for a vacation and return to his activities later. However, there are people in Georgia who are protesting against all that,” added Putin, saying that Gabunia “does not deserve the honor of having a criminal case opened against him”.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared a similar standpoint as the President as they called the insults against Putin “unacceptable”, but added that the Georgian government and society have responded in the right way. “We note that this time, unlike after the attack on 20 June on Russian MPs [in Tbilisi], the Georgian authorities did not justify the radicals, but found the strength to dissociate themselves from the provocateurs and condemn their behavior. We also see the fair indignation with which the incident was perceived by Georgian society,” read the statement.
President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili also called for an easing of tensions by urging the Russian government not to respond to the provocations “staged by radical forces” in Georgia, and not to “encourage their destructive goals to come true.” She added that “peaceful policy is the only way to have stability in the country and in the region.”
As a reminder, the public insults from Gabunia directed at Putin were perceived very negatively from Russian and Georgian officials; the Russian Duma even considered imposing hard economic sanctions on Georgia by terminating the import of wine and waters from Georgia and banning money transfers to the country (Caucasus Watch reported).
