MOSCOW. March 15 (Interfax) - The false report aired by pro-government Georgian TV network Imedi claiming that Russian tanks had invaded their country and killed President Mikheil Saakashvili has been described as an insult to the people of Georgia by Russian envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov.
"Certainly, it was a mockery of the people by the Saakashvili regime. If Mr. Saakashvili applies such methods in his election rivalry with the Georgian opposition, this can tell us a lot about what the West habitually calls Georgian democracy. Naturally, it is impossible to build a democracy with such methods," Chizhov said in televised remarks.
"As you know, some people did not survive that idiotic report," he added.
The European Union is slowly developing an objective attitude to events in Georgia, Chizhov said.
"Political struggle methods Mr. Saakashvili is using, and this report is an illustrative example of these methods, do not agree with the universal norms of political behavior," he said.
"I think that neither the European Union nor the United States nor anyone else in the world needs such an ally as Mr. Saakashvili," Chizhov said.
Imedi TV on Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. local time aired a report, using archive footage from the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, an "imitation of possible events" where Russia had invaded Georgia, bombed its airports and seaports, and killed Saakashvili under the order of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The telecast caused panic in Georgia, with many believing the report was real. Cell phone networks crashed and worried people queued at ATMs and gas stations.
The Georgian opposition strongly condemned the report, and people protested outside the channel's headquarters in Tbilisi.