Former ruling party MP: Degnan met Ivanishvili to exert pressure on him to drag Georgia into war

Former ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party MP, Mikheil Kavelashvili, who left the GD earlier this year, said Wednesday that “it was clear” to him why US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan could request a meeting with the founder of the GD, billionaire Ivanishvili in March of this year.

 

He suggested that the Ambassador reportedly wished to make an influence on the Georgian Dream authorities via Ivanishvili to drag Georgia into Russia’s war in Ukraine.

 

Ivanishvili said Wednesday that Degnan requested a meeting with him on March 21 of this year and that the meeting lasted for three hours.

 

He did not say in the letter released today what the meeting concerned, neither confirmed, nor dismissed the allegations of former GD MPs that “great forces” wished to draw Georgia into the war.

 

Kavelashvili, along with two other MPs, Dimitri Khundadze and Sozar Subari, left the GD “to tell the public the truth.”

 

The opposition said that the trio “was voicing Ivanishvili’s anti-Western rhetoric.”

 

Following today’s letter by Ivanishvili, in which he dismissed allegations over running the country from the backstage, the opposition once again accused the former PM of being engaged with anti-Western activities.