Russia “liberated” Abkhazia – passengers in Russian cruise liner visiting Batumi

Several of the passengers in the cruise liner Astoria Grande, entering Georgia’s Black Sea City of Batumi on Thursday, told the domestic media their country had “liberated” Georgia’s currently Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions, claiming Moscow was “not occupier”. 

 

“We liberated Abkhazia from you, they asked us for help. You entered there with tanks, we saw those tanks. I was in Abkhazia and I saw it myself. I do not know whose territory it is, but we did not occupy either Abkhazia or Georgia. I do not know anything about Ossetia, probably Ossetia asked us for help and we helped too. I do not know anything about the occupation of Georgian territories by Russia, and Russia is not the occupier,” says one of the tourists.

 

Another Russian tourist claimed “we are all the Soviet Union, one country, big, beautiful.”

 

“The last time we were in Batumi was in 1978. Now we have to see historical places. We do not know that Russia had occupied the territories of Georgia. The Soviet Union is everywhere, Russia is not an occupier. Georgia, we are all the Soviet Union, one country, big, beautiful. I am an old person and I live in that time,” said another tourist.

 

The representatives of the United National Movement and the Lelo opposition parties arrived in Batumi early on Thursday to protest the entry of the Russian cruise ship.