Ruling party founder claims “high-ranking foreign official” proposed Georgia to engage in “guerrilla war” against Russia

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and Honorary Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday claimed a “high-ranking foreign official” had proposed to Irakli Garibashvili, the Chair of the ruling party and the former Prime Minister, to “engage in a guerrilla war” against Russia “with foreign assistance”. 

In his interview with Imedi TV, Ivanishvili recalled the European Parliament resolution that had called on Georgia to join international sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and alleged there was “a lot of pressure” on the Georgian Government over the issue. 

I can also remember a story told by Irakli Garibashvili, when a high-ranking foreign official had a conversation with him. Irakli asked him: how many days can we fight, how many days can we endure? The official responded by saying ‘three or four days’ and then added that ‘there are three million [Georgians] and they [Russians] can not kill all of you in three or four days, you can go to the forest with a guerrilla movement, we will help you, and you will fight from there’. This was the reality”, Ivanishvili claimed.

He stressed the ruling team had “provided additional information to the public” about what was “happening behind the scenes”. 

Ivanishvili further highlighted the ruling party needed to secure a constitutional majority in the upcoming parliamentary elections on Saturday in order to “be able to get rid of the collective United National Movement opposition” so that the “events that have been taking place in the country for the last 12 years do not happen again”.