Ruling party founder Ivanishvili will be remembered in Georgia’s history, Tbilisi Mayor

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze has dismissed allegations that more than 1,500 troll and bot accounts were among those that liked a 26 May social media post by Imedi TV featuring Bidzina Ivanishvili alongside Georgian independence leaders Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

“I am certainly not going to respond to speculation,” Kaladze said when asked by a journalist about the allegations.

Kaladze said Ivanishvili, honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party, would be remembered “in golden letters” in Georgia’s modern history for his role in ending the United National Movement’s rule in 2012.

“Everyone remembers well what was happening in the country before 2012. It was not only Mikheil Saakashvili’s regime. We can clearly see what forces we were dealing with and what forces stood behind these internal enemies, people without a homeland and agents,” Kaladze said.

He said Ivanishvili had united the country around him and helped free Georgia from what he described as the “bloody regime” of Saakashvili and the United National Movement.

Kaladze also accused forces inside and outside Georgia of seeking to change the government and bring their “agents” to power to advance foreign interests.

“Today, it is the Georgian people who decide who will be in power and whom they will entrust with the fate of the country,” Kaladze said.