Ruling Party Honorary Chair: blackmail, sanctions “did not work”, had opposite effect

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Honorary Chair and Founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday told Imedi TV programme that blackmail and sanctions directed against the country and him “did not work” and had the “opposite effect”.

Ivanishvili claimed the latest critical statements about from unspecified political forces were “mostly blackmail” and were coordinated by the current domestic opposition owners - "Global War Party", a reference to unspecified political groups in the West who allegedly seek to create a revolutionary scenario in Georgia and involve the country in opening a “second front” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

He said as he observed during his visits to the country’s regions “the public is more informed  and mobilised”, adding that critical statements regarding blackmail were “inappropriate and biased” and caused public irritation.

As for the punishment and sanctions, I think they did not have any effect, did not work and will not work”, Ivanishvili emphasised.

I want to assure the society, as [...] I know the regions and the cities [of Georgia] quite well, that all these [blackmail and sanctions] did not produce any effect, [...] because the blackmails [against him] were based on non-objective information”, he added.

The GD party’s Honorary Chair added “the founders of today's liberal ideology have managed to completely monopolise” the media, similar to what they had done in Georgia at the time of ruling of the previous Government.

[...] Trying to do this in Georgia will not work and they [the liberals] have not understood this. We have a real democracy, just look how many televisions there are [operating in the country]",  he noted.

Ivanishvili claimed that “when a different, critical opinion is not heard, it is easy to make the public believe in virtual reality”, which he believed “cannot work” in Georgia, since there was real democracy in the country.