“The opposition wishes to destabilize and involve Georgia in the war with Russia,” said one of the leaders of the ruling party “Georgian Dream” (GM), chairman of the parliamentary committee on legal affairs, Henri Okhanashvili. So he commented on the requirement of the opposition, led by the Party Mikhail Saakashvili, a single national movement on the need to introduce a visa regime for citizens of the Russian Federation. This is reported by the Georgian service “Radio Liberty”.
Okhanashvili’s statement sounded in the context of a violent discussion about the position of the Georgian authorities in relation to the war in Ukraine, as well as in the context of the recently -frequent attacks of deputies close to the authorities of the USA and the EU: they are accused of indulging forces allegedly wishing to pull off Georgia in the war.
In this regard, 48 deputies (almost all members of the parliament from opposition parties) today, August 4, published an open letter, urging colleagues from the ruling party, as well as Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili “to stop the slanderous and misinformation campaign against the country’s main strategic partners – USA and EU “.
One of the recent reasons for the discussion between the authorities and the opposition was the statements of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense of Ukraine Alexei Danilov that if Georgia considers Abkhazia and South Ossetia “its territories”, then it would be worth “protecting its lands”. “If you think that these lands are yours – then imitate us and act as we are,” Danilov said.
In Tbilisi, this phrase was perceived by many as a direct call for war with former autonomies, the independence of which the Russian Federation recognized after a five -day war of 2008. Prime Minister Garibashvili said that Georgia “would not fight against his Abkhazian and Ossetian brothers and sisters.” And the chairman of the GM Irakli Kobahidze noted that Alexey Danilov allegedly “voices the desire of the Georgian opposition.” Meanwhile, the oppositionist, the leader of the Agnibeli Strategy, Georgy Vashadze, who served as an adviser under the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, was indignant at these accusations by Kobakhidze, and called Alexei Danilov’s statements “moronic.”