Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, stated that the ruling party "has achieved a great deal in every direction," and those who attempt to criticise it "find themselves in a very ridiculous position." He made this statement in an interview with the government television channel Imedi.
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"When Khazaradze and Japaridze entered politics, I was pleased because they are financiers and would likely offer compromises. However, they turned out to be the worst. Khazaradze comes out and asks, 'Where are the 100 enterprises?' Japaridze, I guess, was on one of the television channels when a journalist told him, 'I have a list of 500 or 700 here’. 700 new enterprises were built, and 800 were retooled, which is just as important as building new ones; in many cases, it is even more expensive. Yet he comes out and asks, 'Where are the 100 enterprises? Where is the free money? Cheap money?' It was about a billion; more than three billion were spent, and I think it was even 6. When the state paid interest, there were numerous different programs, and they had an amazing effect.
You cannot name a country experiencing such an economic boom. We rank first in the world. Miracles are happening in Georgia.
Khazaradze asks, 'Do you want to live in a swamp?' He himself left the swamp in the form of Anaklia... Yet they come out shamelessly, asking where the hundred enterprises are and where the cheap money is. I am surprised and amazed that people believe such simple lies… At this time, there is no economic growth like this anywhere else in the world.
As for the European Union, I won’t list all the things we have done to enter it. What is the connection of the European Union itself, and on what basis did it become interesting? It is based on Christian values, equal competition, the inviolability of business, and the independence of the judiciary. We have made achievements in all these areas; we are being recognized by countries around the world, and I have seen our ratings - we are either first or in the top three or five in terms of progress. We have amazing accomplishments in all directions, which true Europe values.
I am a great friend of Ukraine and consider myself as such, and I am very worried about what is happening there. I don’t want to enter Europe like that. I would not like to enter a Europe that is encouraging Ukraine to join ahead of us. Nor am I interested in what is actually happening in Moldova. If you know what's going on there, I don't find it appealing to enter under those circumstances. We must strive to enter as a successful nation.
Look at these ratings based on which we are improving. Why do we have such an economy? Why do we have such a judiciary? Check our international ratings if you don’t believe us. First, look around - every city has changed, people. See what has happened in a short time. Everything has increased threefold or more across the board," said Bidzina Ivanishvili.
As he said, imposing sanctions on Russia would devastate the country's economy: "Khazaradze is asking us to impose sanctions on Russia to provide you with a pension of thousands of GEL. He cannot even pay one hundred GEL. Those who understand economics will assure you that they won't be able to pay even a thousand-dollar pension if we impose these sanctions."
