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Karasin: “Georgia Has Matured Politically Over the Past 16 Years”


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Praising Georgian Dream Honorary Chair Bidzina Ivanishvili’s promise to apologize to “Ossetian sisters and brothers” for the August 2008 war, Grigory Karasin, head of the Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, stated in a Telegram post on September 17: “Georgia has matured politically over the past 16 years. The futility of eternal confrontation has become clear to many.”

He said that Ivanishvili’s statement created “an opportunity to create a new atmosphere” in relations with the occupied Tskhinvali region, and that “it was met with great interest in the Caucasus and around the world.”

He adds: “There is a growing realization that hostility and confrontation after Saakashvili’s adventurism in 2008 must give way to reason and stability” and that “For many, the futility of eternal confrontation became clear.”

Karasin also said that Ivanishvili’s statement, which was met with harsh public outcry and came in the pre-election period, “predictably caused an explosion of scandalous emotions of focal groups who are not satisfied with the calm development of political processes in their own country.” He added that forces around the world “who see their strategic interest in destabilizing Georgia and the region” would aggravate the situation on the eve of the elections.

On September 14, during the ruling party’s pre-election regional tour in Gori, the party leader Bidzina Ivanishvili again accused the former UNM government of starting the war in 2008 and said that after the elections “we, Georgians, will find it in ourselves to apologize for the fact that the treacherous “National Movement”, acting on orders, set Ossetian sisters and brothers on fire”.

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