West putting pressure on Georgia and Ivanishvili Ruling party leader says

The sanctions imposed on the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine are directly related to the pressure exerted on Georgia.

Since March 2022, i.e. after the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Ivanishvili started having problems with Credit Suisse trusts, which started refusing to transfer uncontested money to him. Ivanishvili's representatives regarded what was happening as political blackmail related to the conflict in Ukraine, the chairman of Georgia’s ruling party, leader of the parliamentary majority Irakli Kobakhidze, Caliber.Az reports citing Georgian media.

"They suspended his transactions without any arguments or justifications. One should draw an absolutely logical conclusion that the actual sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili are directly related to the pressure that has been exerted, including by our radical opposition," Kobakhidze said.

Leaders of Georgia's largest opposition party, the United National Movement, and their associates, whom the ruling party calls the "radical opposition," have repeatedly called on the West to impose sanctions against Ivanishvili, claiming that the latter, through the hands of the ruling Georgian Dream party, is changing the country's pro-Western course toward Russia.

According to Kobakhidze, the pressure and calls to open a second front have been very serious, with the recall of the Ukrainian ambassador from Tbilisi among the examples.

"Imagine, so far they have not recalled the ambassador even from Belarus, and the ambassador from Georgia was recalled on the fourth day after the start of the war, when, naturally, there was a very heavy emotional background in Georgian society. In the end, all this served only one thing: they wanted to see a second front in Georgia, which was indirectly mentioned by representatives of our opposition," Kobakhidze said.

Representatives of Ukraine, including the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, have repeatedly urged Georgia to open a second front.

Of course, this would aggravate the situation for Russia, but it would have the worst effect on the fate of our country, the Georgian Dream leader emphasized.

Georgian Dream leaders have repeatedly said that Ivanishvili will not be forced by blackmail to go against Georgia's interests and drag it into war.