60 Minutes: Hot on the Trail Live.
A new Maidan in Tbilisi. Crowds of protesters tried to storm the Georgian parliament last night, demanding the resignation of the chairman and the interior minister, as well as changes in the electoral system. However, they didn't manage to seize the parliament last night. Haven't managed, the protests are still on-going. The police reacted harshly. The police used tear gas, clubs, and rubber bullets to disperse the majority of the crowd. Dozens of people from both sides have been injured. However, nobody's going home. The protests are continuing. The reason was the visit by a senator group from Russia. From Russia, of course. The Communist Gavrilov arrived at an Orthodoxy conference. He sat on the seat of the chairman of the Georgian parliament, all according to protocol. It resulted in mass protests and harassment of the Russians. People were throwing eggs at our senator delegation. The Tbilisi government risks being overthrown. In this case, it's clear that Russia is a convenient excuse and has nothing to do with it. There was an accident. We believe it was an accident, such accidents happen, though once in four million years but anyway. Several days ago, a member of the US State Department, look, Mr. Markov, your favorite State Department is also here, said that Georgia's open door policy for Russia would be the undoing of the former. This might've triggered the outrage. Saakashvili decided to get involved. He's been instigating from Ukraine, encouraging Georgians to fight, overthrow the government, and continue the protests. The Interior Ministry of Georgia called the riots an attempt at subversion. The mayor of Tbilisi, our favorite soccer player, Kakha Kaladze, discouraged the rioters from blindly following political opportunists. The Russian Foreign Ministry encouraged Russians to refrain from traveling to Georgia until order is restored there. Let's see it.
The last one with the car being turned over happened this morning. The riots haven't abated. Mr. Markov, Peskov has just called the Tbilisi protests a Russophobic provocation. They are indeed a source of concern. However, I have a feeling that even if the visit by the Russian senator group hadn't been used as an excuse, this would've happened anyway. Russia's just a convenient excuse in this case.
Sergey Markov, political analyst: Right, there's a power clash going on there. A radical group has formed. When I was reading the news, the most shocking thing was three eyes put out by direct hits from rubber bullets. Three people have lost their eye already. Sounds pretty scary, doesn't it? God save us if somebody dies. I hope it all calms down. For our citizens, this means a serious change in this year's tourist routes. As far as I know, about 1.5 million Russians visited Georgia last year. We had charter flights going there. A lot of people used to travel there. Now it's clear…
- Here are the statistics for the period between January and May 2019. Look, 539,000 Russians, even more, went on vacation in Georgia. We'll discuss this in detail later.
- Regarding the figures for Azerbaijan and Armenia, those are the Georgians who work there. They charter between the countries. The majority of the tourists are Russian. With their own hands, this extremist group is destroying the tourist branch of the Georgian economy. It's basically the only one developing properly. Don't forget that during the times of the USSR, Georgia was a prosperous country with the highest living standards. They ruined everything. They wiped out everything in Georgia. Why? What we're seeing now is wild barbarism. This extremists basically demonstrate that Georgia is incapable of hosting any international event.
- Don't go there then.
- They're mad about a person sitting on the wrong seat. Listen to me, it's just a chair! It's just a chair! A chair is not worth killing people and making such a mess. Look, I once had to take part in a similar event. I had to travel to Georgia to attend a European Council event. The Georgian government canceled the summit because of your humble servant. In response, the European Council gave them an ultimatum. "If you don't let Markov in, you won't have any EC summits for two years." They said they didn't care. Look, you can't act like barbarians.
- Let's take a look at what happened in the parliament.
Mr. Platoshkin?
Nikolay Platoshkin, professor of political science:
- Indeed, in Soviet times, there wasn't a country more welcoming to Russian tourists than Georgia. Georgians... Georgians were generous, kind, and noble people. I keep asking Georgians when they lost their honor.
