Kobakhidze says provocations to “artificially raise the degree of tension”

Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the attack on a TV Pirveli film crew last night in the center of Tbilisi, near the protest, a “provocation.”

“This is a provocation, unequivocally, which has the sole purpose of artificially raising the degree of tension. Investigation of this crime has already been launched and I hope that the perpetrator will soon be revealed,” Kobakhidze said.

At the same time, he did not comment on other cases and actions of police officers who ignored the attacks. The media had at their disposal footage showing a patrol standing nearby and not interfering. During the night there were up to 10 attacks - on activists, journalists, also a group of people in black broke into the office of the “Coalition for Change” and beat up everyone they found there. By morning, no one had been detained. Post factum, the Interior Ministry said it had launched an investigation.

The Georgian Dream earlier put forward versions that opponents of the authorities are attacking themselves, or it is done by the residents of the Mtatsminda neighborhood who have formed gangs in black masks because they are tired of the actions. Both versions are contradicted by the inaction of the police during the attacks.

Reprinted from https://www.newsgeorgia.ge/