Chairman of the Georgian Dream Irakli Kobakhidze says that the issue of sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili is a kind of blackmail, the main purpose of which is to drag Georgia into war.
Kobakhidze accuses high-ranking Ukrainian officials, including the chairman of the country's ruling party, David Arakhamia, of blackmail. According to Kobakhidze, "if he has dignity," Arahamia should tell the Georgian people why he is threatening Ivanishvili with sanctions and why he is trying to open a second front in the country. "Although they have no dignity, we know Arakhamia's dignity," he said.
"The purpose of all this is clear, the goal is the same - Arakhamia through the mouths of Podolyak and Danilov tells us to open a second front, and on the other hand blackmails Bidzina Ivanishvili that he is somehow asking us to start a war.
Is there a danger that Bidzina Ivanishvili will return to politics to ask us to start a war? - I rule it out because this man has not made a single step against the country and will not do so in this case, I am sure of that, unlike Arakhamia, who is a stateless person. Bidzina Ivanishvili knows very well the price of the homeland, so no blackmail and threats can make him take a step towards the second front, which is their goal.
As for formal sanctions, when you want to blackmail a person, formal sanctions are not an effective means. If you punish a person, you cannot blackmail him, because the means are already there. Going for sanctions would be a desperate step on their part, but logically it shouldn't happen," Irakli Kobakhidze said.