Georgian Dream MP Lashes Out at Deported Russian Opposition Leader

Georgian Chairperson of the Parliamentary Foreign Committee, MP Nikoloz Samkharadze lashed out at Russian opposition leader, former MP Dmitry Gudkov, who was barred from entering the country on January 31.

Following the Georgian opposition’s outcry at Gudkov’s deportation, MP Samkharadze yesterday called Gudkov’s criticism against Georgian authorities “baffling,” arguing there was “no ground for brouhaha.”

The Georgian Dream MP reminded that Gudkov is a political ally of Alexei Navalny, who — in August 2008 amid the Russo-Georgian war — likened Georgians to rodents and called on expelling all Georgian citizens from Russia.

MP Samkharadze also held against Gudkov of being a member of the Russian State Duma, which recognized the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.

The Georgian Dream MP also asserted it was up to the Ministry of Interior and, in some cases, up to the State Security Service to make decisions allowing or denying a person from entering Georgia.

MP Samkharadze called for considering Georgia’s interests first when discussing the interests of foreign politicians and look up who had said what about Georgia, including its occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions.

Gudkov Retorts

Gudkov responded on Facebook the same day, challenging the Georgian Dream government “to at least learn to lie in a way that won’t look funny.”

The Russian opposition politician pointed out that he only entered the State Duma in 2011, while the Russian legislature recognized the independence of Georgia’s occupied territories in 2008.

Gudkov also argued that he had not visited Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia ever since Georgia introduced the law on occupied territories, “respecting Georgia’s territorial integrity.”

He stressed that if his visit to Abkhazia was the Georgian authorities’ rational for the refusal, they could have cited it as a reason in the official denial note instead of referencing vague “other grounds.”

Gudkov shirked responsibility for Navalny’s controversial 2008 comments by underlining that he is called “Dmitry Gudkov, and not Alexei Navalny.”

The Russian politician also reminded that back in 2019 the Georgian Dream government allowed Russian Communist-Orthodox MP Sergei Gavrilov, whose party had voted to recognize independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions back in 2008. Gavrilov’s taking of Georgian Parliament Speaker’s seat during the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy triggered a major protest in June 2019.

Gudkov further alleged it was “important” for the Georgian authorities to be liked by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Imprisoning Saakashvili is not enough here, a number of ritual gestures need to be extended in order to receive financial support in the context of the upcoming elections,” he said, possibly referering to by-elections in Batumi and Rustavi in April 2022.

After deportation on January 31, Gudkov claimed the Georgian Government made a “political decision,” arguing that Georgian border authorities, who had a knowledge of his biography, cited the decision made by their superiors.

Georgian Dream Government previously in August refused the entry of Lyubov Sobol, a close ally of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 

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