Burjanadze slams Georgian Dream and Saakashvili for exodus of Russian tourists

Former speaker of the Georgian parliament, Chairperson of the country's opposition party, United Georgia, Nino Burjanadze believes the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party and forces controlled by ex-President Mikhail Saakashvili are to blame for Georgia’s financial losses due to the mass exodus of Russian tourists.

According to her, Saakashvili is doing his best to milk the protests for all their worth and "will do everything so that anti-Russian hysteria is Georgia's key guiding policy." 

"Unfortunately, because our authorities are shortsighted, it will now be extremely difficult to quickly restore Russian-Georgian relations even to the level that they were a week ago. It will require a lot of very serious effort in this direction, since the recent events have set us back," Burjanadze told the Izvestia newspaper.