Speaking with the name of Georgian people “not Ambassador’s business” – ruling party head

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday slammed the outgoing US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan for her comments over the entry of a cruise ship in Batumi on Monday boarding Russian citizens, and said it was “not the Ambassador’s business” to speak with the name of the Georgian people. 

 

In her comments, the diplomat said on Monday “no one should wait for Georgians to welcome the citizens from the country that occupies its territories”, responding to protests in Batumi port. 

 

“To put it mildly, it was an incomprehensible statement. No one thinks that way, what Kelly Degnan said, that is not how the public representatives in Georgia think, that no Russians should come to Georgia”, Kobakhidze claimed, adding “the vast majority of the public has a different opinion”. 

 

He added “when you easily say such phrases related to the loss of a billion dollars by the country, I do not know what assessment to make”. 

 

Kobakhidze also claimed a “collective” United National Movement opposition party stood behind the protests and “not the Georgian people”. 

 

Police on Monday arrested 23 individuals at the rally, including a Ukrainian citizen, protesting the entry of the Astoria Grande cruise ship in Batumi from Turkey, boarding Russian citizens. 

 

The ship first entered Batumi on July 27, with Russians on board claiming Moscow “freed” Georgia’s currently Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions from Georgia.