© Getty Images / Anadolu Agency / Georgian PresidencySoldiers seen during the closing ceremony of Multinational Exercise Noble Partner 2020 at the Vaziani Military Base in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Moscow sees no reason to doubt claims made by businessman and former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili that the West has explicitly asked Tbilisi to go to war with Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
The top diplomat made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the BRICS group summit in Kazan. He had been asked to comment on Ivanishvili's statements by Russian daily Izvestia.
"I see no reason not to believe them. They [the Georgian leadership] invoked dialogues with Western countries, which directly encouraged them to take military action with Russia. I have no reason not to trust them," Lavrov stated.Earlier in the day, the founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Ivanishvili, said the country's ex-PM, Irakli Garibashvili, told him that during his time in office he had been approached by a senior Western official with a proposal to launch a war on Russia.
"Irakli asked, 'Yes, but for how many days do you think we will be able to fight?' For three or four days, he was told. He said, 'And for the sake of these three or four days you would destroy us?'" Ivanishvili told Georgian broadcaster Imedi.Garibashvili then received an assurance that Georgians "won't all get killed" in the short conflict and then could "start a guerrilla movement in the forest" while being supplied by the West, Ivanishvili claimed. While the questionable offer was turned down, it prompted the government to begin reacting tougher on similar proposals to go to war with Russia, the businessman added.
These latest remarks correspond to earlier claims made by the Georgian leadership that Tbilisi has been repeatedly urged by unspecified parties to enter the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Top Kiev officials have openly called on the country to open a "second front" against Moscow.
Georgia has maintained a neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict, refusing to join the West's sanctions drive against Russia, nor has it agreed to furnish any direct support to the combatants.
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