TBILISI. May 26 (Interfax) - Georgian police footage in which police officers pose as opposition activists and receive money for supposedly taking part in current protests in Tbilisi and are incited to set fire to police vehicles has been dismissed by an opposition leader as false.
At a rally outside the parliament headquarters on Wednesday, former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze, one of the leaders of the Popular Assembly opposition party, claimed that the tape, published by the Interior Ministry, was designed to provoke reprisals against protesters.
In the footage, young men with kerchiefs over their faces ask police officers posing as protesters with spy cams attached to their clothes how many people they have brought with them and whether they would be prepared to hurl Molotov cocktails at police cars.
In one scene, the disguised officers take money for allegedly having come to take part in the protests. Each officer claims he has brought several people with him to join in the protests. After this comes a promise to pay extra for setting fire to police cars.
The conversations obviously take place near the site of the opposition rally, which was organized by the Popular Assembly.
Rally participants warned they would spend the night on the site of the meeting on Rustaveli Avenue, a thoroughfare in the city center where a military parade is due to take place on Thursday to mark Independence Day.