Ruling party MP: the Alliance of Patriots party – but what kind of patriots are they?

Ruling party MP Mamuka Mdinaradze has made a statement today regarding the recent scandal surrounding the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia which was found to have received financial support from the Kremlin for the upcoming parliamentary elections. 

• Opposition demands Alliance of Patriots of Georgia be banned from October elections due to alleged Kremlin support

The Alliance of Patriots is a party, but what kind of patriots are they?", said Mdinaradze who added that it was not surprising for him to see Russian contacts within the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia.

No less dangerous are the people who clearly have Russian positions and the people who do not fix it but still [work for] Russia’s interests. Unfortunately, we have a lot of such people in the country", Mdinaradze said.

The Dossier Center, which tracks criminal activities associated with the Kremlin, wrote that the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia requested more than $8 million from the Administration of the President of Russia.

Georgian oppositionists have sent a budget for four months of the election campaign to Moscow. They are ready to spend $166,667 on souvenirs alone, and the total expenses are estimated at $8,430,625, which is a huge amount for poor Georgia", says Dossier Center.

According to the Dossier Center, the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia has hired political strategist Sergey Mikheev and the Moscow company POLITSECRETS to promote the party.

Leader of the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia Irma Inashvili denied the allegations. 

She said that former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and Giga Bokeria (currently one of the leaders of the opposition European Georgia party and a former member of Saakashvili's United National Movement party) ordered this investigation be given to the Dossier Center.