19 November 2024
"These charges are the latest in a long catalogue of actions by the Tbilisi and Moscow governments to discredit me and will be recognised by most neutral observers as just another fabrication in an ongoing smear campaign. Weaponising the courts against its enemies has long been a central pillar of the Russian playbook.
“It perhaps speaks volumes that these legal developments are coming just weeks after the authorities in Georgia announced they are formally investigating me for daring to defend my own country from the 2008 Russian invasion – at a time when I was serving as Minister of Defence.
"These developments will not deter me from remaining an outspoken critic of Russian aggression.”