MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Monday that outside parties were trying to destabilise Georgia, after the United States and the European Union called for an investigation into alleged violations in a parliamentary election there.
The ruling Georgian Dream party won the election with nearly 54% of the vote, according to official results that the opposition disputed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any Russian interference in the vote.
Western governments are concerned about what they see as a tilt by Georgia away from Europe and towards Moscow, more than three decades after the Caucasus nation won independence when the Soviet Union collapsed.
President Salome Zourabichvili, an opponent of Georgian Dream, on Sunday referred to the result as a “Russian special operation”. She did not clarify what she meant by the term.
Peskov said Russia strongly rejected such allegations.
He said there had been attempts by European actors to interfere in the election, but not by Moscow.
“We strongly reject such accusations – as you know, they have become standard for many countries. At the slightest thing, they immediately accuse Russia of interference. No, that is not true. There was no interference and the accusations are absolutely unfounded,” Peskov said.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Andrew Osborn)
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