The United National Movement is developing “strategic directions of action” regarding the events ongoing in the occupied Tskhinvali region.

As one of the leaders of the United National Movement, Ana Tsitlidze, stated at the briefing, the party is starting to work with international partners to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible in the Russian Federation and their supporters.

In addition, the party’s foreign team will hold special meetings with the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia.

In addition, the United National Movement calls on pro-European opposition forces, the non-governmental sector and civil movements to create a unified, coordinated resistance platform that will confront the regime’s betrayal of Georgia’s national interests and criminal inaction.

In addition, Ana Tsitlidze explains that another direction will be the neutralization of economic and hybrid influences.

“The events taking place in the occupied Tskhinvali region of Georgia, the Kremlin’s push for new legal documents on the so-called “deepening of allied interaction” and the attempt to so-called “unify” the occupied territorial entity represent another phase of the open, creeping annexation of Georgia’s sovereign territories by the Russian Federation.

The complete political silence and inaction of the de facto regime of the “Georgian Dream” in Tbilisi is alarming and anti-state. This is not a policy of “keeping peace”. This is capitulation to the occupier, external isolationism and a deliberate betrayal of Georgia’s interests in the face of Russian aggression.

The Kremlin is implementing legal annexation precisely where and when it is met with deliberate complete passivity and criminal inaction by the de facto ruling regime of occupied Georgia.

In the conditions of the seizure of state levers and the paralysis of parliamentary democracy, the United National Movement recognizes its responsibility and formulates the following strategic directions for action:

Working with international partners to impose targeted and personal sanctions - since the government consciously refuses to use diplomatic levers to protect Georgia's sovereignty, we, through our international partners, including the European People's Party (EPP) and the US Congressional Friends Group, are starting to work towards imposing targeted sanctions against those responsible in the Russian Federation and their supporters. Sanctions should apply to all those who participate in the legal formalization of the annexation of the Tskhinvali region.

Consolidation of party and public efforts - We reject narrow party ambitions and attempts to politically monopolize these processes in any form. We call on all pro-European opposition forces, the non-governmental sector and civil movements to create a unified, coordinated resistance platform that will confront the regime's betrayal of Georgia's national interests and criminal inaction.

Mobilization of the diplomatic corps - The party's foreign team will hold special meetings with the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia in order to provide them with detailed information on the situation along the occupation line and demand that monitoring be strengthened within the framework of the mandate of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) and an appropriate response from international institutions.

Another direction will be the neutralization of economic and hybrid influences.

Strict capital controls: together with international financial institutions (FATF, US Treasury), filtering financial flows coming from Russia or going from Georgia to Russia.

The deliberate failure to use transport, customs and other economic levers in relation to the occupying state and its supporters, and the acceptance of creeping annexation, is a betrayal and crime of Georgia’s national interests.

Our primary goal is the peaceful unification of Georgia. Our task, together with the patriotic society of Georgia and the friends of our country, is to prevent the complete isolation of Georgia from the civilized world caused by the treacherous policy pursued by the criminal regime of oligarch Ivanishvili, as well as a conscious and deliberate capitulation to the occupying Russian Federation. Georgia will definitely be unified!, - said Tsitlidze.