Russia calls Georgian TV tirade against Putin a political provocation

Russia on Monday condemned an obscenity-laden tirade against President Vladimir Putin by a Georgian television presenter on-air, calling it an unacceptable political provocation by radical forces.

Relations between Georgia and Russia have come under strain in the last month after anti-Kremlin protests broke out in Tbilisi when Russian lawmaker Sergei Gavrilov, invited to Georgia by local pro-government deputies, addressed the chamber from the speaker's chair in Russian.