Washington continues to put pressure on Tbilisi

Members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives of the US Congress called on the US administration to impose sanctions against the chairman of the ruling "Georgian Dream" oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili. Such an initiative was made by the largest internal party faction in the House of Representatives of the Congress - the Republican Study Committee (RSC). In a report on global threats, a fair amount of space is given to Russia. About the same as Iran and China. It is these three powers that the authors of the report (and these are 13 congressmen) indicated as the most dangerous enemies of the United States, openly working against the national interests of the States, and therefore ...

Consequently, sanctions need to be tightened against them, introduce new ones, play ahead of schedule, etc. Among the specific people against whom we must immediately begin to act is Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom Congressmen consider a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who works to destabilize the situation in Georgia.

120 pages about US threats. Praise be to the Almighty - the document is recommendatory in nature. If it were obligatory for execution - war cannot be avoided. Hopefully, he was recommended to people more intelligent than the authors themselves, not so obsessed with, in particular, hallucinations of Ivanishvili’s efforts to destabilize the situation in Georgia to please Vladimir Putin or on his instructions. The oligarch can be blamed for many things, but not this. From the first day of the displacement of the overly temperamental explosive "National Movement" and its leader, Mikhail Saakashvili, Ivanishvili tried to "calm" Georgia, which was agitated, agitated, nervously exhausted by the long-term rule of the "nationals". For this, for a very sedative line, Ivanishvili was repeatedly criticized domestically, and his opponents equated his caution and moderation with the desire not to do anything that was not personal business.

This is not the first American “run over” to Tbilisi in anticipation of the parliamentary elections this fall. Obviously, the former National Movement party in power, with its informal leader Mikheil Saakashvili, went all out for the sake of returning to power and fully reanimated its ties with the American political establishment. Not so long ago, senators and congressmen bombarded the Georgian government with a demand to make concessions to the opposition on issues of the parliamentary election scheme - reducing the number of majority deputies in favor of deputies on party lists and releasing political prisoners, which implied the stealing former mayor of Tbilisi and former defense minister, year actively participating in speeches in front of the parliament building and provoking the protesters to seize it. But this was not enough. After some time, a group of congressmen and senators turned to US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin with a letter expressing concern about the deterioration of public administration in Georgia, the impairment of American business, the activation of Iranian business in this country, bypassing American sanctions, and again Ivanishvili’s ties with Moscow.

In the appeal, special attention was paid to the history of the American companies Frontera Resources and Conti Group, which, according to the authors of the letter, the Georgian authorities squeezed out of the country, probably for geopolitical reasons. Since the mid-1990s, Frontera has unsuccessfully searched for oil and gas in Georgia. Last year, her financial situation seemed to be shaken, because wage delays and the mass layoffs of employees began. The Georgian authorities considered the event a breach of the contract and through international arbitration achieved its termination. And Conti Group participated in the project for the construction of a deep sea port in Anaklia. Her Georgian partner TVS Bank had difficulties - an illegal financial transaction 10 years ago was revealed during the audit. As a result, the troubles changed the leadership of the bank, and the authorities at that time, having not received confirmation of the financial viability of future builders of the port in Anaklia, decided to replace the Georgian participant in the project. Then the Conti Group also left it.

However, the authors of the letter to Michael Pompeo, some of whom, according to Tbilisi, are official lobbyists of American companies, have their own vision. The letter says that the actions of the Georgian side are dictated by the geopolitical interests of Russia, and Ivanishvili did everything possible to maintain Georgia’s dependence on Russia, since American companies did just that - they pulled Georgia out of the Russian energy yoke and attachment to Russian ports.

How sideways Georgia is tied to Russian ports with its Poti and Batumi semi-loaded is not to be understood. Like Frontera, which had not found interesting oil and gas fields in Georgia for 20 years of operation, it was going to ensure energy independence from Russia - the same thing. It’s another matter that, from a certain time, Georgia has not been energetically dependent on Russia, buying the necessary gas from Azerbaijan, but the authors seem to be unaware. Their task is different.

By the way, the Conti Group declined to comment on the senators' complaint to the Georgian secretary of state. But Frontera, which by decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court should leave Georgia and for violating its obligations to pay several tens of thousands of dollars, was also noted in a letter to Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia. Retelling it makes no sense, but the essence of it in an arrogant advice is to change your mind so as not to make yourself a big trouble.

The situation, however, is unpleasant for the Georgian authorities. In their letters and recommendations, American politicians use the wording “US geostrategic national interests dictate ...” It is known that only theses about protecting and strengthening national interests are heard, then actions can follow. And it is by no means accidental that the chief curator of reforms in Ukraine, the ex-president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, answered a recent question about the events in his homeland, angrily cutting off the journalist with the words that he was very busy and not in Tbilisi, now he answered a similar question that during the parliamentary election he will be at the forefront. The Georgian Foreign Ministry immediately called the Ambassador of Ukraine to explain why the Ukrainian official Saakashvili intervenes in the internal affairs of the former homeland. But what is the ambassador? In such cases, the comments of the owners "are taken into account and transmitted to the Foreign Ministry."