Imedi TV owner: no reason to say that Georgia is moving towards Russia
Irakli Rukhadze
Photo: Imedi TV
Irakli Rukhadze, the owner of Imedi TV company, on Sunday said there was no reason to say that Georgia was moving towards Russia.
In his interview with Imedi TV, Rukhadze noted while the American Government announced some sanctions against Georgia, the next day the Atlantic Council named Georgia among the 50 best states in the global ranking of Freedom and Prosperity, marking a new historical high for the country in terms of prosperity.
He further claimed that according to all western rankings, Georgia was ahead of many EU countries and “no one around us has such a status”.
“We have an incredible level of media freedom, which is one of the main arguments for me, why the [domestic] transparency law cannot be branded a 'Russian law'. In Russia, that law was applied in an absolutely closed space, where there is no free media. With such a free media, it will be very difficult for any Government to apply some law and use it inappropriately”, Rukhadze said.
“We endorsed hundreds of decisions in favour of Ukraine, not [not in favour of] Russia. We voted against Russia. Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is a huge figure in the Georgian Dream party and in Georgia, has not been in Russia since 1998. In 2004, he sold his main assets, took this money and invested it in the West. There is no reason to say that Georgia is not moving towards Europe and is moving towards Russia”, he concluded.
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