Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has used “quite a harsh rhetoric” against President Saakashvili, but not the words reported in the French press, Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government’s spokesman, said.
 
PM Putin, according to the French President’s chief foreign policy adviser, told President Sarkozy at the meeting in Kremlin on August 12 that he wanted to depose President Saakashvili and hang him “by the balls,” the French weekly news magazine le Nouvel Observateur reported.

“Vladimir Putin really participated in this meeting in the Kremlin on August 12,” RIA Novosti news agency quoted Peskov on November 14. “Putin really used quite a harsh rhetoric against Saakashvili’s regime… All the rest published in the article is total insinuation of a provocative nature.”