Georgian authorities acting disgustingly, don't reflect Georgian people's position – journalist Temur Kiguradze

Georgian journalist Temur Kiguradze said this in a comment for Espreso TV.

“Dear Ukrainians, never think that we have forgotten about the help you provided us in the early 90s, during the war in Abkhazia, and in 2008 during the conflict in South Ossetia. Georgia is actively raising money to be transferred to the Armed Forces and for humanitarian aid. Yes, our government is behaving in the most disgusting way. It pays lip service to supporting Ukraine and even provides some humanitarian aid, but we want more. We will make sure that there is more help. We are not Russia, we can change our government,” Kiguradze said.

As he notes, the majority of the Georgian population understands that the war in Ukraine is not only a war between two countries, but a battle for the future of the entire region, all former colonies of the Russian Empire. At the same time, Kiguradze admits that Georgia has recently become a kind of 'safe haven' for some Russian citizens.

“Someone is running away from mobilization, someone simply does not want to be with the regime that is now in Russia. Part of the population does not resist the Russian invasion, and there are economic reasons for such processes. Prices in Georgia are now higher than in Eastern Europe. Therefore, some citizens of my country are ready to exchange economic preferences for the memory of what happened just a few years ago. I can say that I am ashamed of this. We had campaigns for the introduction of a visa regime for Russians. If we let anyone in, it should be only those who are ready to fight Putin's regime,” the Georgian journalist believes.

Kiguradze says that although Russians are now traveling to Georgia en masse, they cannot do as they please there.

“We have control over what Russians do in Georgia. They don't run around with Russian flags like in some other countries. They don't write the letter 'Z' on buildings. Once it happened that a Russian tried to put up a Russian flag on one of the bridges in Tbilisi, but it lasted 5-10 seconds until ordinary passers-by, young people, grabbed him and tore the flag. Fortunately, we don't have such a thing and I hope it won't happen here,” Kiguradze summarized.