Ruling party threatens with recordings, but it should be afraid of them more – For Georgia’s Kemoklidze

Kakhaber Kemoklidze, a former official and a member of the For Georgia opposition party, on Thursday said Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, was threatening with recordings on alleged interference of the US and the west in Georgia’s domestic affairs, saying the GD “should be afraid more” of footage obtained by the western intelligence on its alleged connections with the Kremlin. 

 

Criticizing the US for imposing sanctions on four Georgian judges, Kobakhidze on Thursday said there was a “political interest in interfering” the country’s sovereign issues, pointing to telephone conversations “with demands”, and “urging everyone to act in line with rules”. 

 

In his social media post, Kemoklidze said the US, considering its intelligence capabilities, was expected to have “more powerful” materials that could evidence contacts between the current Georgian authorities and the Kremlin. 

 

“The ‘night conversations’ voiced by the US Ambassador Degnan in her comments was not accidental. Instinct tells me that if someone wants to open the ‘Pandora’s box’ there are much more interesting video-audio materials”, Kemoklidze said. 

 

In his comments Kemoklidze slammed the Georgian Dream authorities for “repeating” the Kremlin narrative on opening the second front in Georgia, amid Russia’s ongoing occupation of Georgian territories and crimes committed against Georgian citizens. 

 

“The terms satanists, antichrist, Ukrainization, second front, collective West, war parties, neo-fascists, global war party, sovereign democracy, which are being used by the Georgian Dream are Russian vodka poured into a new bottle [of the Georgian Dream government”, Kemoklidze said. 

 

The politician noted Georgia currently stood at the “crossroads” with one way ensuring peace, while another “stuck” the country in the South Caucasus. 

 

“[to prevent the second from happening] Georgia should obtain the European Union membership candidate status [this year] and jump to the train with Ukraine and Moldova for the bloc enlargement talks’ ‘, Kemoklidze noted. 

 

He said Russia and the current Georgian authorities were interested in Georgia “not obtaining the status”.