PM spoke as “pro-Russian bot”, “Putin’s representative” at Qatar economic forum – opposition MP

Giorgi Vashadze, the head of the Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition party, on Wednesday slammed the country’s prime minister Irakli Garibashvili for his comments at the ongoing Qatar Economic Forum panel discussion, calling him a “pro-Russian bot”. 

 

In his answers to a Bloomberg journalist, Garibashvili accused the west of having had an ‘illogical stance” to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and later in Ukraine. 

 

He claimed the international community was demanding Tbilisi to impose sanctions on Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine when “none of foreign countries” had imposed sanctions on Moscow for its aggression against Georgia in 2008. 

 

Commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Garibashvili said 20 percent of the Ukrainian territory had been occupied by Russia so far, adding “this is the status quo of today. What will happen tomorrow, I do not know, I cannot say. Nobody knows. Unfortunately we do not see any sign that this war is going to end soon. This is the problem. I also have to say that we do not see enough efforts from the international community to take proper measures to encourage consultations, to encourage peace talks”. 

 

In his remarks, Vashadze said the PM had “defended the Kremlin’s rhetoric in all his comments”, accusing the current government of “isolating the country from the west to turn Georgia into second Belarus under the influence of Russia”.

 

“Garibashvili has dealt the hardest blow to Georgia’s European perspective at the Qatar Economic Forum. Citizens of Georgia, please listen to the Bloomberg journalist’s interview with him in front of the world media and world leaders – unfortunately, it was not the prime minister of Georgia, but Putin’s personal representative who spoke”, Vashadze said. 

 

Vashadze also noted the claims of the PM, that the Georgian economy would “collapse” if the country imposed personal sanctions on Russia, had been developed by the Kremlin’s propagandists.