The United Kingdom must first apologize for the falsehoods of the public broadcaster. This is the first thing the UK owes, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze said, responding to the statement made by the British Ambassador to Georgia during a meeting with students, in which she said that “political relations between the two countries have been damaged because of anti-democratic pressure on the opposition and civil society in Georgia.”

Kobakhidze added that the Georgian government will appeal to the UK regulator, and if necessary, to the courts, and will use all legal means to compel the BBC to apologize.

“The United Kingdom must first apologize for the falsehoods spread by the public broadcaster. This is the first thing the UK owes, because the BBC is a public broadcaster, directly funded by public channels. Therefore, the first step the UK must take is to apologize for the fake story they aired. We saw that they created a scandal - it was an absolutely artificial attempt, entirely based on falsehoods.

The investigation is closed. We openly and publicly stated that any international entity can request information from us regarding this investigation. Overall, whenever the water cannon was used, the substances mentioned in the SSS briefing were used in every single case. This concerns absolutely all cases where water cannons were deployed,” Kobakhidze said.

Regarding the question of whether trichloroethylene - a carcinogen that causes severe illnesses - was used, Kobakhidze said that if such a substance had been used, hospitals would have seen a very large number of patients.

“Only five people sought treatment for mild intoxication, and they were discharged the next day. You’ve reached the point of saying, ‘the parrot lost its feathers.’ We will appeal to the UK regulator, then to the courts if needed - we will use every legal mechanism to make the BBC apologize for the lie they spread. The SSS explained everything, so your falsehood burst like a soap bubble,” Kobakhidze stated.