Arrival of the vessel is a very good example for assessing the hysteria artificially created by the United National Movement party and their foreign patrons. Such a statement made today the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

“We saw that it was mostly the members of the UNM, they said that there were students, which students? There were heads of the UNM youth organization.

There were a total of 100-200 people at that rally, which in itself does not represent the mood of the society. It is absolute manipulation to speak as if it is the will of the people.

In this regard, I will respond to the US Ambassador’s statement that it is the will of the people that Russian tourists should not enter either by sea or by land. She said this, and saying this, whether it is 150 activists or even 300-500, is an ordinary manipulation and has nothing to do with the attitude of the Georgian people.

In general, such type of statements by foreign diplomats is a rather dangerous way when representatives of foreign countries speak on behalf of the Georgian people. Georgian people don’t need a guardian, moreover, Georgian people don’t need foreign guardianship.

Ambassadors, if they represent someone, they represent the people of their country. If they protect someone’s interest, they only protect the interest of their own people. Protecting and representing the interest of the Georgian people is not the task of the Ambassador of a foreign country. It is quite a bad trend, when we have facts of representatives of foreign countries, be it an Ambassador or a foreign politician, speaking on behalf of the Georgian people. This is the usual patronizing attitude towards the Georgian people. It is as if the Georgian people do not have a representative and they need a foreign helper to voice their thoughts”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.

He also called the controversy around the arrival of the vessel a “very good example for assessing the hysteria artificially created by the UNM and their foreign patrons”, adding the developments “should not be encouraged” on the backdrop of calls for reducing the polarisation of the domestic political scene.