Opposition calls for rallies from September, says Ivanishvili may “give Georgia” to Russia

Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition MP Paata Manjgaladze called for large rallies starting September on Wednesday, stating that the founder of the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling party, “informal ruler” of the country, Bidzina Ivanishvili was “bargaining with the West to receive his millions and not to be sanctioned,” threatening to put Georgia on “Russian rails.”

“We should start large-scale actions from September. The situation is extraordinary, alarming and special measures are mandatory,” said the MP.

He stated that “recent attacks” on the US Ambassador Kelly Degnan and accusations that she had exercised pressure on a Georgian judge, “was part of the Georgian Dream’s anti-Western propaganda.”

“The goal of their propaganda is to distance partners from the country, to leave Georgia alone in the face of Russia, and then tell us – we have no other choice but Russia as the West has abandoned us. We must use all our resources not to allow them [the Georgian Dream] to achieve the goal,” Manjgaladze said.

He claimed that Ivanishvili was “trading with the West with the country’s fate to evade sanctions and protect his money.”

The ruling party officials said that the recent allegations against Degnan, that she put pressure on the judge of Tbilisi City Court judge Lasha Chkhikvadze for his judgment over the case of the opposition-minded Matavari channel head Nika  Gvaramia, “were serious and should be responded.”

The Ambassador has several times dismissed the allegations.

Earlier, three former MPs of the ruling party, who left the GD last month to “tell the public the truth,” accused the Ambassador of supporting “radical forces” in Georgia who wished to drag Georgia into Russia’s war in Ukraine.