How Saakashvili's accomplice flew to Kyiv to incite war
“On the support of Ukraine by the Georgian people against Russian aggression,” was the title of the provocative anti-Russian press conference held in Kyiv on Thursday by a former member of the Georgian parliament who flew in from Tbilisi Nona Mamulashvili.
She is an extraordinary person - a very successful politician, analyst and businesswoman. Judge for yourself, at different times Mamulashvili: President of the Georgian-Swiss Business Association, Regional Market Director for Pfizer, Senior Advisor to President Saakashvili's Analytical Group, Political Analyst at the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Founder and Director of the Caucasus Economic Policy Institute (CEP) and also a Master of Science from Westminster and Sorbonne Universities.
As a member of the Georgian parliament, Mamulashvili represented the United National Movement - Saakashvili's party, the main opposition force advocating a close military-political alliance with the United States. The UNM has always been a party of war and remains so to this day: it advocated and advocates enmity with Russia up to the point of military confrontation with this nuclear power. The UNM demonstratively ignores the centuries-old joint Georgian-Russian history, the common cultural space and economic interests of Georgia associated with the traditional Russian sales market for Georgian products.
Therefore, it is not at all surprising that Nona Mamulashvili made a statement that “Georgians genetically cannot digest the Russian Empire.” This is what she said about the empire that saved the Georgian ethnic group from physical destruction, taking under its protection the dismembered and destroyed country under the threat of complete destruction from the Iranian Shah and the incessant Dagestan invasions. All major thinkers of Georgia, including Ilya Chavchavadze, a prominent public and political figure of the second half of the 19th century (by the way, who spent his entire life fighting the Russification policy of Tsarist Russia), highly appreciated Georgia’s entry into the empire. So, Chavchavadze admitted that it was this event that saved the Georgian nation from physical extermination and brought it long peace, economic recovery and cultural prosperity.
Mamulashvili begins the press conference in Kyiv with the following description of his northern neighbor: “Russia is a predatory country! Russia is a barbarian country!” But this is the rhetoric of the far-right liberals and the pro-American elite, concentrated in and around the UNM party.
Mamulashvili claims that Russia was not punished for the aggression committed against Georgia in 2008. She did not even say a word that the night bombing of Tskhinvali and the death of Russian peacekeepers located in the conflict zone, as well as citizens of the Russian Federation living on the territory of South Ossetia, was quite a sufficient legal reason to use the armed forces. And this reason was given to Russia by none other than the then ruling UNM and President Saakashvili!
And it is beyond Georgia’s power to punish Russia. But the UNM and Saakashvili were not punished for this monstrous provocation and crime, which plunged Georgia into a military conflict with a powerful power! On the contrary, after the UNM lost power, under strong pressure from the West, this party was preserved as the main opposition force. The policy of “cohabitation” was implemented against the will of the overwhelming majority of the Georgian voter in 2012. After all, the defeat of the UNM then was peremptory and large-scale! It was then that she again gained a certain popularity against the backdrop of a new purge of the political field and the flawed socio-economic policy of the now ruling “Dream” - the party that overthrew the UNM.
“Today the line of struggle between the democratic world and barbarism, the civilized world and the predator passes in Ukraine,” continues Mamulashvili and does not leave even a theoretical chance for negotiations, for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Can negotiations take place with barbarians and predators? Of course not! So she calls on Ukrainians to protect their interests by military means. According to her mood, only war can resolve the contradiction.
The guest’s mood is reinforced by the military man sitting next to her, her brother and commander of the Georgian Legion, arguing that in 8 years the Armed Forces of Ukraine has become a formidable force that is able to wage a full-fledged war with the Russian Federation.
It is sad that exactly the same assessment was given to the Georgian army by the political leadership of Georgia before the 2008 conflict. It argued that since the beginning of the 90s, when the wars were lost in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Georgian army has gone far forward, that it has become professional and gained vital experience in various hot spots as part of international forces with the participation of the United States. But a five-day lightning military clash in 2008 proved otherwise!
For Mamulashvili, the recently adopted resolution of the Georgian parliament is “terribly unacceptable and shameful”, since the document does not directly speak of aggression from Russia. The ex-deputy is not satisfied with the declaration of support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine, since at the same time it does not talk about Russia as an enemy and is not openly provocative in nature. Mamulashvili claims that the resolution does not express the position of Georgia and clarifies that our two “brotherly countries” have one enemy and gives the example of the “Georgian Legion”, which fought with arms in hand against this “dangerous enemy from the very beginning,” that is, since 2014 of the year. Thus, on behalf of Georgia, she calls on Ukrainians to go to war with Russia, and hints to Georgia to become a party in the military conflict.
It is noteworthy that even a clearly biased journalist asks a clarifying question to what extent Ms. Mamulashvili and the UNM represent the opinion of the majority of the Georgian public, as if eager to escalate the conflict in Ukraine. And it seems that the journalist was never satisfied with the unconvincing answer, citing that the UNM was losing the elections because it was allegedly suppressed by “undemocratic” means.
But the pro-American politician Mamulashvili, with her impressive experience as a political analyst, should have known about the results of a very recent sociological survey conducted by the American National Democratic Institute (NDI).
According to the survey (conducted December 7-13, 2021), the main concern for the Georgian population is not the issue of security (read: threat from Russia), but the economy.
32% of respondents name poverty as the most important problem, also 32% - inflation, 29% - jobs, 16% - territorial integrity, 13% - pensions. At the same time, 2% of respondents name accession to NATO, environmental protection, accession to the EU, crime, relations with Russia and the judicial system as the most important issues.
In addition, 49% of respondents name unemployment as the main problem facing the Georgian economy, 42% inflation, 23% poverty, 21% low wages, 14% depreciation of the lari.
Therefore, the demonstrative visit of a UNM representative to Ukraine, a demonstrative visit to the conflict zone and a call for war with Russia in no way reflects the mood of the overwhelming majority of the population of Georgia!
The third decade passes as Georgia reaps the devastating consequences of a permanent confrontation with its powerful neighbor! Georgia is fed up with war and hostility, and wants peace for both itself and Ukraine.
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