Xenophobia is not acceptable in Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze says

© Photo: Maria Novoselova / Vestnik Kavkaza

Georgian Dream leader Irakli Kobakhidze called fascists Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement party for a xenophobic protest in Kakheti. On Saturday night, the opposition staged a rally outside the hotel where the daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov allegedly stays.

Today, the head of the Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, condemned an unauthorized rally by the radical opposition near the Kvareli Lake Hotel in Kakheti. This night, members of Saakashvili’s United National Movement party staged a protest against the daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who allegedly stays in the hotel.

Kobakhidze stressed that persecution of foreign citizens for their citizenship and nationality is xenophobic, and there should be no xenophobia in Georgia. In this regard, he accused the UNM of being a manifestation of fascism.

"We made a forecast in advance that with the approach of the tourist season, a new wave of xenophobic campaign would definitely begin. Thus, what we predicted is exactly what came true. Xenophobia is not characteristic of Georgian society,”

– Irakli Kobakhidze says.

The leader of the Georgian Dream party did not deny the rumors that Sergey Lavrov's daughter was in Georgia. He recalled that members of the UNM, including Mikheil Saakashvili, participated in the weddings of media and government officials’ relatives in Russia. According to him, such behavior reveals double standards of the opposition and its desire to complicate Georgia’s life under the Georgian Dream rule at any cost.

Irakli Kobakhidze noted that future political xenophobic provocations and attempts to raise tensions in Russian-Georgian contacts by the UNM are not excluded. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the Georgian Dream party knows all the organizers of the provocative actions.