Vilnius-based newspaper 15 Min.LT citing sources in Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn confirmed governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia denied Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili official visits, amid the unwillingness of the Georgian Government to punish organizers of the July 5 violence against journalists and LGBT activists.
Political leaders of the Baltic states were “angered” by the failure of the Government to punish those responsible for the violence, who are “mostly far right and are associated with Russia,” the paper reported.
53 journalists were beaten by the Russia-linked extremists throughout July 5 and one died days later.
Some of those groups, such as Alt Info and the Georgian branch of Evgeny Primakov Foundation, as well as their leaders have associated themselves with Alexander Dugin, the infamous ideologue of Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy agenda. In the aftermath of the attack, Dugin wrote a Facebook post in English declaring victory.
“Georgians by their heroic action are changing the world balance – touching the scale to our side,” he declared.
The decision to refuse the visit is also linked with the Georgian Dream’s withdrawal from the EU-mediated April 19 deal between the Georgian Government and opposition.
Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the report a “speculation.”
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