"Not only do you not distance yourself from the rhetoric aimed at war, you are spreading it yourself" - Former Dream MPs write another letter to Kelly Degnan

MPs Dimitri Khundadze, Mikheil Kavelashvili and Sozar Subari, who have officially left the Georgian Dream, publish another send another letter to U.S. Ambassador Kelly Degnan.

The deputies make anti-Western statements and write that Kelly Degnan "does not distance herself from the rhetoric directed at her, but supports and incites it herself."

We offer the letter in full:

"More than two weeks have passed since we addressed you with an open letter and a number of issues of particular interest to the Georgian community. Unfortunately, however, we have not received an answer to any of our questions.

Once again, we would like to clarify that the purpose of our questions was not to attack the United States, but to protect its positive image and reputation. It was important to us that Georgian society not lose confidence in its strategic partner and not even reach the point of suspicion that its goal was to return the National Movement to power and turn Georgia into a second front to hamper Russian military aggression in Ukraine. We thought that if such doubts deepened, the high public confidence in Western institutions, to the strengthening of which the current Georgian government has made a special contribution, would be severely undermined. Our main goal was not to undermine public confidence in the United States or damage the reputation of Western institutions. Therefore, we felt obliged to ask you a few questions, to which we hoped to receive intelligible answers, rather than insults.

Let us remind you again of the content of these questions:

We were wondering whether you distanced yourself from the rhetoric of Georgian radicals, their foreign lobbyists and top Ukrainian government officials aimed at opening a second front in Georgia (let's not mention Gigauri, Lomjaria, Usupashvili, Margvelashvili, Chergoleishvili, Chiaberashvili, Mshviladaze, Sanaia, Podolyak, Arestovich one by one, direct or indirect appeals and statements by Goncharenko, Danilov, Arakhamia, Kasyanov, Ilves etc. , which were aimed at fermenting the idea of war in Georgia; we will not even mention the most serious provocations related to the imposition of sanctions and sending volunteers;). Madam Ambassador, you have called the facts we have listed a lie, but all the statements we have mentioned were made in the public space and were widely covered in the media. By not answering our question you left us with the only way to conclude that not only are you not disassociated from the rhetoric of war, but that you have a principled decision to encourage it. Your demonstrative meeting with Nino Lomjaria after the publication of our open letter is unmistakable proof of that. This logical conclusion of ours was confirmed by Lomjaria herself when she said that your meeting was aimed at openly declaring your support to her. When you met with Lomjaria, you openly told the Georgian society that between not imposing sanctions on Georgia and "bombing" Georgia, you also gave priority to bombing Georgia. Perhaps tomorrow you will meet another of your favorites, Eka Gigauri, who expressed even more clearly what she had to say and said: "Russia is losing the war in Ukraine, it doesn't have the resources to be there, so it can't start military action on all fronts, and we have to do everything we can to take advantage of this window of opportunity." Here we recall that a couple of days ago you made the landmark statement, "It is more important than ever that Georgia and Ukraine unite now against Russian aggression." Against the backdrop of open support for war rhetoric, this phrase ultimately reinforces our belief that the radicals' support for the campaign is not an expression of your political subjectivism, but a preconceived plan;

Our next question was about the Bakuriani gathering. We wondered if you would distance yourself of this gathering, where representatives of the radical opposition and associated NGOs and media were trained by Peter Ackerman, who came from America, to organize the revolution. We also wondered if you would distance yourself from the later Bakuriani rally participants' demand for the resignation of the legitimately elected government and the so-called formation of a technical government. Hearing the answer to this question was especially important to the public, given that most of the people making this request from the stage are funded by the American taxpayer. However, we did not hear your response to these questions, which we take as evidence that you were unfortunately sympathetic to the Bakuriani gathering and supported the resignation of the government and the so-called technical government;

As you know, first the National Movement TV companies and then the judges were informed that: a) Judge Chkhikvadze was summoned by your embassy employee; b) the embassy employee requested on your behalf a report on the Gvaramia case from Judge Chkhikvadze; c) at the end of the meeting the embassy employee informed Judge Chkhikvadze that his planned visit was cancelled. We were wondering if you would confirm this fact, which is clearly a gross violation of the Constitution of Georgia and the Vienna Convention and a gross violation of the independence of the court. We would like to hear from you a negative assessment of this possible fact, which would reinforce the public opinion that no one at the American Embassy would try to infringe on the independence of the court and introduce clan elements into the system in the future. However, you did not deny or talk about this fact, which definitively reinforced our belief that the information disseminated first by the National Movement and then by the judges is true, and you want to present such gross interference with judicial independence as the norm;

Finally, we have not received an answer to the question whether you met with Bidzina Ivanishvili after the war in Ukraine. A negative answer to this question would have shed light on many unanswered questions and would have dispelled many doubts, including, at least to some extent, doubts about the possible connection between the actions of the Swiss bank and Georgia's interest in being involved in the war. However, leaving the question unanswered by you, on the contrary, confirms this suspicion definitively.

To sum up, the following unequivocal conclusions can be drawn from your statements and silence:

Not only do you not dissociate yourself from the rhetoric of war, but you yourself support and incite it;

You sympathize with the Bakuriani Revolutionary Assembly and share the demand for the resignation of the government and the formation of a technical government;

You affirm the intervention in the independence of the judiciary and, moreover, you approve of it;

You met Bidzina Ivanishvili after February 24th and it is not difficult to guess the message you were supposed to deliver to him.

Since you claim that you can actively interfere in Georgian politics and justice, then naturally you should be aware of the proper accountability to the Georgian society as well. However, instead of answering our legitimate questions, you chose to bring in a representative of the State Department. When you evade legitimate questions from parliamentarians elected by the Georgian people, prevent us from understanding the truth, and want to silence us, this clearly shows your attitude toward the sovereign state. Real partners who respect friendly people, the state, its sovereignty and institutions do not behave like this. In addition, the very fact that your defense was decided at the level of a State Department official gives us one more piece of information - everything you do is not your personal decisions, but the current American strategy with regard to Georgia.

The same applies to the question of a second front. Of course, involving Georgia in a military conflict would be a serious boon to Ukraine. We see that you supply Ukraine with weapons on a daily basis, and therefore neutralizing Russia's military advantage in Ukraine is a matter of principle for you. In addition, we understand that a second front would further undermine Russia's image, which would keep European countries motivated to help the Ukrainian front. However, when you are driven by such a goal, you have to be brave and say so openly to the Georgian people. Most importantly, you must give the people a choice, and you must not try to convince or force their government behind their backs. Let us also say that we have quite detailed information about the conversations that took place in specific cabinets, but we will refrain from revealing the details of those conversations.

Here we are asking Bidzina Ivanishvili, since the American ambassador did not answer the question about the meeting, to tell the public whether he and Kelly Degnan had a meeting after February 24 and, if so, on whose initiative and what issues were discussed.

We remain hopeful that the Georgian Dream will defend its positions to the end and will not get involved in a war that may have some advantage for global goals, but promises the complete destruction of our country. However, in order to avoid the slightest risk of a different scenario, we believe that our maximum activity and reporting the truth to the public is necessary, which we will take maximum care of in the future," read the statement.