Speaker of Georgian parliament: “Russian politics deserves no respect”

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The Georgian authorities are indignant at the statement made by the Russian foreign ministry on the situation over the energy crisis in Georgia, Speaker of the Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze told Ekho Moskvy radio station late Sunday. According to her, “the fact that the Russian foreign ministry uses words like ‘hysteria’ and ‘disorder’ is disgraceful, especially when it goes about assessment of statements made by president of a sovereign state.”

“The Russian politics deserves no respect,” noted Burjanadze. “Foreign ministry of any normal country would express regret that diversions were carried out on their territory and people were left without electricity and heating in a severe winter time, and then criticize, but in a less or more civilized form.”

Earlier, on January 22, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Russia of deliberate disruption of gas supplies. Saakashvili called explosions on the gas pipeline “sabotage” and Russia “a blackmailer.”

These statements caused surprise first in Gazprom then in the Russian foreign ministry, which accused Tbilisi of decision to spoil irrevocably relations between the two countries. The Russian foreign ministry called “hysteria and disorder” Saakashvili’s allegations that Russia deliberately caused the crisis and accused Tbilisi in attempts to find sponsors of anti-Russian policy in the West.