TBILISI, DFWatch – Russia hopes to restore friendly relations with the Georgian people, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says.

“We have never equaled the Georgian government to the Georgian people. And I hope very much that this really brotherly people to us will finally realize that Russia is not enemies but friends and relations will be restored,” Ria Novosty quotes Vladimir Putin saying during a meeting on February 22 with the commanders of divisions and brigades of Russia’s armed forces.

He says it’s not Russia’s fault that relations with Georgia were raptured but that this is a result of the policies pursued by the Georgian government. At the same meeting, the Russian prime minister said that it’s a mistake by the U.S. to bolster the defense capacity of Georgia. Putin warned Georgia ‘to refrain from repeated aggression.’

“Our American partners are making a mistake .We have been constantly telling them about it. And I very much hope that sanity will prevail for the Georgian side, and the lesson of today’s adventurous policy of the Georgian leadership does not pass in vain, and that these weapons will not be used for new acts of aggression,” Putin said.

He continued saying that soon after the conflict in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the U.S. began rearming Georgia, which he again called a mistake, considering the fact that Georgia ‘clearly conducts an aggressive policy today.’

Responding to Putin’s comments, Georgia’s foreign ministry said it is symbolic that the prime minister spoke to military commanders about his friendship and love towards the Georgian people, commanders whose troops on his own orders brutally punished that same population.

“It’s hard to comprehend who Mr. Putin means by the Georgian people. Many thousand families living in Georgia lost their relatives in Russia’s numerous military acts of aggression and repeated ethnic cleansing.”

The statement also says that many people had to abandon their native lands and have become illegal refugees as a result of the Russian aggression.

The statement says that houses were destroyed by Russian military technology and the property illegally occupied by Russian troops and thousands of kinds of crime.

“Georgian cultural heritage is barbarically destroyed on the occupied territories. Mr. Putin has a very strange method to express love towards Georgian people,” Georgia’s foreign ministry writes.