Updated on
Summary
Panic gripped Georgia on Saturday when a pro-government television station broadcast a fake report that Russian tanks had entered the capital and President Mikheil Saakashvili had been killed.Russian Television channel introduced the report as an imitation of possible events, but the warning was lost on many viewers as mobile phone networks crashed and residents of Tbilisi rushed into the streets. The report thrust the ex-Soviet neighbors back to August 2008, when Russia crushed an assault by U.S. ally Georgia on the rebel region of South Ossetia in a five-day war and sent tanks to within 45 km of Tbilisi. The Georgian Interior Ministry said the report, which did not carry a banner saying it was a hoax, caused great panic. A cinema in Tbilisi emptied as parents called their children home, a frantic filmgoer said. Using archive pictures from the 2008 war, Imedi showed advancing Russian tanks. Switching to a live talkshow, the anchor apologized for any panic the report had caused, saying: We just wanted to show what the worst day in Georgian history might look like. The report was a barely disguised swipe at opponents of Saakashvili who recently met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow and called for the countries to restore ties. Dozens of angry Georgians converged on Imedi, where opposition politician Nino Burjanadze told reporters the stunt was disgusting.
