US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan responds to letter of Mikheil Kavelashvili, member of the Georgian Parliament.

“That letter was so full of lies and conspiracy theories that I really couldn’t even finish reading it; and it sounded really unhinged to me. What he clearly doesn’t understand is that the United States is here to support the people of Georgia, not a particular political party, one way or the other; or to support the independent institutions established by your constitution: like the Public Defender’s Office that exists and is constitutionally mandated to protect the rights of every Georgian citizen.

It’s very dangerous when independent institutions are undermined like that. That’s very dangerous for any democracy. And I will say again, quite clearly since he seems to insist on repeating disinformation that has already been clearly identified as false: the United States and Europe do not want to drag Georgia into Russia’s war against Ukraine.

We are doing everything we can to stop this war, to prevent it from expanding. We are working for peace, and anyone who wants to work for peace with us is who we are working with, who we are trying to have on our side. And there are many countries, as I’m sure the Prime Minister saw when he was recently at the NATO summit in Madrid: the extent of support and the effort to stop Putin’s war against Ukraine. And that is the serious issue that is at stake here. It is very strange to me though – I suppose it shouldn’t be – but this supposedly former GD MPs’ narrative tracks very closely with some of the ruling party leaders who also are repeating disinformation that has been clearly identified as false. What is their motive in continuing to repeat what has been identified as lies and false information? That’s my question”, - said Kelly Degnan.