British MP Adam Holloway, presenting a report on Georgia in the British Parliament, said that the ruling Georgian Dream party is a pro-Putin and pro-Russian group whose leadership threatens to turn Georgia into a Russian puppet and deliberately undermines the criteria for joining the European Union.
“From the very beginning, the Georgian Dream Party has been an organization positive towards Russia and controlled by the Russian leadership.
Party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister of Georgia, is an oligarch who likely made his money from deals with Russia. He is suspected of using his fortune to buy votes and appoint people loyal to him to the Georgian government. And although now he does not hold an elected position, he has a lot of control over Georgian institutions,” Holloway alleged.
Holloway also talked about US sanctions against four Georgian judges and about the situation in which former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili finds himself. According to the deputy, Saakashvili is dying in hospital, and now the “rampant corruption” in the Georgian political system is becoming apparent.
“Independent doctors confirmed that traces of heavy metal poisoning were found in his [Saakashvili’s] blood. When Mikheil Saakashvili was president of Georgia in 2008, Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia and the Russian military occupied most of the country. At the time, Mr. Saakashvili warned us that this was the first step in Putin’s mission to restore a Russian sphere of influence and, ultimately, an empire in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. He also warned us that after Georgia, Putin would turn his attention to Crimea,” Holloway said.
The British MP added that while almost all European countries had imposed sanctions against Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the Georgian government saw a business opportunity and increased trade with Russia:
“The party has also sabotaged support for Ukraine while the citizens of Georgia protested en masse against the Russian invasion.”
