Ruling party head highlights “one-sided friendship” with Ukrainian authorities

Irakli Kobakhidze, the chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the Georgian government had a “one-sided friendship” with the Ukrainian authorities, with the situation “ongoing for years” now.

In his remarks on disagreements between authorities of the two states, Kobakhidze said both previous and current Ukrainian governments “sheltered criminals” - in reference to members of Georgia’s former United National Movement government - and called the circumstance “an expression of disrespect towards the Georgian state”.

“This is a sad moment, but Ukraine is in a state of war. In addition, Ukrainian people are historically our friendly people and we respect that”, he pointed out.

Kobakhidze commented on the recent involvement of Zurab Adeishvili, the wanted former prosecutor general and justice minister of Georgia, as a senior advisor to the Ukrainian prosecutor general during the latter’s visit to the Council of Europe to discuss Russia’s ongoing war in the country.

Despite the harshest steps, as well as despite the fact that the torturer [and] racketeer [Adeishvili] is brought to European structures as a representative of the Ukrainian government, we are ready to remain in the mode of one-sided friendship with the Ukrainian government”, the GD official said, stressing the Georgian government was using a “soft approach” to its relations with Ukrainian partners due to the country’s state of war.

“[However] [w]hat will happen in the future is difficult for me to say in advance”, he concluded in his comments.

Kobakhidze on Tuesday called Adeishvili’s participation in the meetings with CoE officials as a “grave event” and said the former Georgian official was “not only accused of specific crimes [in Georgia]” but was also a “creator of one of the ugliest repressive machines in the world over the years” in the country.