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Putin says appointing Saakashvili head of Odessa 'spit in faceâ€

17 December 2015 13:19 (UTC +04:00)

Russia is also ready to cancel visa requirements for Georgian nationals, Putin told his annual news conference, TASS reported.

Referring to his political foe Mikheil Saakashvili, who led Georgia during the war, Putin said the appointment of the latter as a regional governor in Ukraine was "a spit in the face of the Ukrainian people".

"Now, export of political figures is popular — they are actively working in another former republic of the Soviet Union — in independent Ukraine. As we can see, those people have not changed their styles. In my opinion, it is just a spit in face of the Ukrainian people," he told a news conference. "Putting Ukraine under the outside governance seemed insufficient to them. They chose to delegate such, so to say, political figures. I believe, Saakashvili was refused a working visa to the US. And they chose to direct him to Ukraine — to manage there. And thus, he is functioning actively there. What was Ukraine told: we shall not be only managing you, but we shall also send over people from more civilized countries, neighbouring or across the ocean, to manage you. It is simply a spit in face of the Ukrainian people," the Russian president said.

"As far as the territorial integrity of Georgia is concerned, this is an issue for Georgian, Abkhazian and South Ossetian people, it is necessary to work with them, we shall accept any decision they make," Putin said at his annual press conference.