Russian Envoy Says Saakashvili Needs Mental Health Check

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, says Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili should undergo a professional mental health assessment.

Churkin made the statement after Saakashvili’s address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, in which Saakashvili offered a broad condemnation of Russian policies.

The Russian delegation walked out of the hall during the address.

Churkin denounced the speech as a "train of crackpot thoughts that were not simply of an anti-Russian, but of a Russophobe, and anti-Orthodox, nature."

No Georgian response was immediately available.

Tensions have remained high between Russia and Georgia since their brief 2008 war.

Russia has recognized South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states, and has stationed troops in both regions.

Georgia says the regions remain sovereign Georgian territory.


Based on reporting by TAR-TASS, rt.com, and RIA