UNM leader Khabeishvili: Ivanishvili’s main ally is fear and hopelessness

Levan Khabeishvili, chair of the political council of Georgia’s opposition United National Movement, on Tuesday said that fear was the “only tool” ruling Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili relied on to retain power.

Khabeishvili added law enforcement lacked real motivation, with only “five to seven thousand officers” standing against “thousands of citizens”. He claimed the Government used financial penalties against protesters and social media users as tools of fear.

“Ivanishvili’s main ally is fear and hopelessness. His entire team is collapsing”, Khabeishvili said.

He said the Georgian Dream fully understood what Ivanishvili’s “peaceful overthrow” would mean, which is why they claimed he would be arrested to stop him from repeating the term.

Khabeishvili said when he speaks about overthrowing Ivanishvili’s regime, people should recall the 2003 revolution.

“The Georgian people have already done this once. Exactly the same was done by our neighbours, the Armenians, in 2019 together with Pashinyan. They peacefully overthrew the regime. This is precisely what is meant by the peaceful overthrow of a government, and that is what I am referring to”, Khabeishvili said.