Imedi TV’s fake report as if Russian troops started invasion with opposition’s help was ”irresponsible and immoral, first of all, in respect of the Georgian society,” Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on March 15.

“A wave of anxiety triggered in the country is quite understandable. Condemnation was voiced by Patriarch [of the Georgian Orthodox Church] Ilia II, opposition figures, human rights activists, many people expressed protest outside the [Imedi] television station’s building,” he said.

“It is widely supposed in Georgia that provocative report on the Imedi TV could not have been prepared without the Georgian authorities’ sanction,” Nesterenko added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that President Saakashvili’s remarks that the fake report was “maximally close to what may really happen” amounted to “approval” of the report.

“A provocative TV program has caused a very concrete damage to the security and stability in the region, thus having essentially increased the degree of tension in already uneasy situation. We hope that the European monitors working in Georgia, as well as the entire international community will give a principled assessment to it,” Nesterenko said.

“Political paranoia has never brought anything good and has never solved serious problems in any state,” he added.