Ruling party head vows Gov’t will "do everything” to prevent country from being "dragged into war"

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said involvement of Georgia in the military conflict amid Russia's war in Ukraine would bring the “most severe consequences to our country and its citizens”, and stressed the Government would "do everything" to prevent the country from being "dragged into war".

We all remember provocative actions of the party of 'war and betrayal' [the opposition United National Movement party] such as holding anti-government rallies right after the start of the war [in Ukraine], demanding the imposition of sanctions on Russia, the demand to send volunteers to Ukraine, and so on. [...] However, what they failed to achieve in a direct way, they are now trying to achieve in an indirect way, with a xenophobic campaign”, the GD official said.

Kobakhidze noted the “xenophobic campaign” aimed at inciting aggression against Russian citizens, which “should lead to escalation and incidents”.

All this serves the only purpose - to somehow drag Georgia into a military conflict. The Georgian Dream party condemns the xenophobic campaign, which blatantly contradicts the Constitution of Georgia and international legal acts in the field of basic human rights and freedoms”, he continued.

We would like to remind the public once again that the involvement of Georgia in the military conflict, which the 'war party' [the United National Movement] and its partners want, will bring the most severe consequences to our country and our citizens. Therefore, the Government will do everything to prevent the country from being dragged into war”, Kobakhidze concluded in his comments.

Kobakhidze on Thursday rejected the calls of the Lelo for Georgia opposition party for imposing visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens to prevent security threats in Georgia on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine by calling it a “deliberate, xenophobic campaign that is absolutely disgraceful”.

• Ruling party head labels opposition calls to impose visa requirements for Russian, Belarusian citizens “xenophobia”, evokes UNM Gov’t decision to lift visa restrictions for Russian citizens

In his comments over the matter Kobakhidze stressed that there was no place for “xenophobia” in Georgia.