“The US assessment of what is happening in Georgia today is entirely logical,” stated Ani Tsitlidze, a member of the United National Movement (UNM) party, commenting on the US Embassy’s statement regarding the creation of a Georgian government department to combat hate speech.
“It is completely natural for the US to give such an assessment to what is happening in Georgia. When journalists—Vakho Sanaya and Mzia Amaglobeli—are detained for exercising their freedom of expression, it is obvious that our international partners would react exactly as the United States did.
“Georgian Dream understands perfectly well that it will not be able to normalize relations with either the US or the European Union for one simple reason. They do not build relations with regimes that detain journalists, politicians, and ordinary citizens for expressing their views, undermine Georgia’s democratic development, use violence against their own citizens, isolate the country, and deprive it of its European future, which is directly tied to Georgia’s freedom and national identity.
The reaction of the US and our international partners clearly points to only one thing: Georgia can only be saved without the oligarchic regime and Bidzina Ivanishvili. I am confident that concrete steps by the US will follow this statement.
Let me remind you of Georgian Dream’s rhetoric when it convinced its voters that the problems were caused by the Biden administration and that relations would be restored after the Trump administration took office. However, this statement came under the Trump administration and was phrased in very tough terms. It explicitly states that what is happening today in Georgia concerns freedom of expression and has nothing to do with democracy and development,” Tsitlidze declared.
