Ruling party founder claims “specific forces” “refuse to give up on thoughts of second front” in country amid Ukraine war

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and Honorary Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday claimed “specific forces” were “refusing to give up on their thoughts of opening a second front” in the country amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

In his comments at an event launching the election campaign of the ruling party, Ivanishvili alleged the “Global War Party” - unspecified political forces in the West who allegedly seek to create a revolutionary scenario in Georgia and involve the country into opening the “second front” - was “enjoying significant influence over today’s American and European bureaucracy”, which “creates a perception among the Georgian public that the country has a conflict with the American state and the European Union”.

“Unfortunately, specific forces refuse to give up on their thoughts of a second front, which, according to their calculations, should change the difficult situation on the first front [in Ukraine]. It is the result of lobbying for the second front that unprecedented pressure has been exerted on Georgia for several years, picking up the pace since the beginning of the war in Ukraine”, he alleged.

Once the war in Ukraine is over, interests will shift, and these perceptions will disappear in an instant. The desire of the Global War Party is clear. Having seen for themselves that we will not get involved in the war and that we will not sacrifice Georgia to share Ukraine’s fate, they have one last attempt to return the network of agents, the union of people with no homeland - the collective National Movement [opposition] - to power, which will take this step immediately upon receiving the relevant instructions”, he continued.

The party official further claimed Georgian citizens would “respond appropriately” to the alleged attempts in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.

“It is clear to everyone that in case of joining the war, Georgia will suffer even worse consequences than Ukraine. Avoiding these consequences is the primary objective, which will be finally resolved on 26 October with another victory of Georgian Dream”, Ivanishvili told the event.

He also claimed the war in Ukraine would “end in space of a year at the latest”, and could be over “even in January” if the Republican nominee would win the US presidential elections, adding the “main thing is to make the most of this brief period” as “once the war ends, all misunderstandings with the United States and Europe will immediately become a thing of the past and Georgia will become a completely different object of interest for global political players”.