Saakashvili behind Kyiv’s sanctions on Ivanishvili’s entourage, not war – opposition MP Khvichia

Iago Khvichia, a Girchi party MP, on Friday said that the allies of arrested former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, were likely to stand behind the recent sanctions of Kyiv on the entourage of the Georgian Dream ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, not Ukraine’s attempts to drag Georgia into its war against Russia, as the current Georgian authorities had claimed. 

Khvichia suggested that the “qualified” members of the former United National Movement government, who were currently taking posts in Ukraine, were acting for the release of Saakashvili. 

“The version of dragging Georgia in the war is nonsense. I think the real reason is Saakashvili. We had warned the Georgian Dream authorities that Saakashvili in prison would have posed threats to Georgia’s European integration process. Saakashvili will do everything to be free. His teammates in Georgia still cannot work effectively, but he has much more qualified allies in Ukraine. They are not sitting idle. If we want to get out of this process, Saakashvili should be transferred abroad”, Khvichia said. 

Four members of Ivanishvili’s entourage have been included in the list of persons sanctioned by Ukraine –  Ivanishvili’s brother, Alexander Ivanishvili and his wife, Ketevan Kharaidze, aunt Ucha Mamatsashvili and his son Tite Mamatsashvili. 

The relevant decree has been  published on the official website of the President of Ukraine. Several Georgian businessmen were also included in the sanctioned list, Davit Iakobashvili, Aleksandre and Giorgi Japaridze among them.