Lukashenko Speaks about Georgian PM’s Sentiments to Russia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, April 30
The Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mentioned Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili during his annual speech to parliament on Friday, saying that at a private meeting Kvirikashvili was very positive to Russians.
“We sat at a table, drinking Georgian wine. He [Kvirikashvili] opened up almost with tears started talking about Russia, on his attitude to Russians,” Lukashenko said.
He also stated that Kvirikashvili is “75 percent Russian in origin.”
Lukashenko said that now Georgia and Ukraine are taking steps to the west and demonstrating most modern American weapons.
“Do we want the same? In most cases we are in blame on what is happening in our perimeter and then have to care about the normalisation of relations,” Lukashenko said.
The press service of the Prime Minister of Georgia immediately responded to the statement by saying that along with other important topics, the discussion topics included the Russian-Georgian relations during Lukashenko’s visit to Georgia in March this year.
"In this context, the prime minister expressed concern that Archil Tatunashvili's body had not been transferred to the family for several weeks, whereas Russia had all of the leverage to accelerate the transfer.
“After this, Kvirikashvili and Lukashenko talked about the pragmatic policy of the Georgian government in relation to Russia and noted that there was no confrontation the people of the two countries. They said that 1.5 million tourists arrive in Georgia from Russia, but there had not been any incident on ethnic grounds,” the press office stated.
The press office continued with speaking about the Georgian-Russian relations. Kvirikashvili told Lukashenko that his grandmother was Russian and that there still were many mixed families in Georgia.
“However, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili emphasized that Georgia has red lines, which are our country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Normalization of relations between the two countries depends on these fundamental issues, but the Russian authorities do not take steps in this direction,” the press office said.
