Georgian Singer To Join Russian Singer At Tbilisi Concert

Vakhtang Kikabidze (left) will join Alla Pugacheva in Tbilisi.

MOSCOW -- Prominent Georgian actor and singer Vakhtang Kikabidze has said he will attend Alla Pugacheva's concert in Tbilisi, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Kikabidze said that despite the current tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, he would be glad to attend Pugacheva's concert.

He added that the countries' bad relations were created by politicians and that historic and cultural ties as well as ordinary people will help restore warm relations.

Pugacheva -- one of the most popular singers in Russia and well-known throughout the former Soviet Union -- announced that she will have a final concert tour in former Soviet countries and that she could not imagine such a tour without visiting Georgia, and she invited Kikabidze to attend her Tbilisi concert.

Kikabidze recently stirred up controversy with a song, in Russian, in which he faults the Russian intelligentsia for keeping silent during last year's military conflict between Russia and Georgia. The song was harshly criticized in Russia.