“It is a lie that the Honorable Chairman purchased any property in the Russian Federation several months ago. He has not purchased any property in Russia since 1998,” said the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s Press Service.

The GD party’s Press Service echoed the article published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project  (OCCRP) about GD Honorable Chair Bidzina Ivanishvili and his wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze.

The GD said in its statement that Ivanishvili had lived in Russia for years and had possessed assets there. In the 2013 property declaration, Bidzina Ivanishvili openly indicated that his wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze owned a residential house and three land plots in Russia’s capital city, Moscow.

The GD further noted that the article is based on false information, while the article’s author Kelly Bloss attempts to portray the information as “sensation” and “scandalous news.”

“We would like to respond to the article published by the “Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project” (OCCRP) about Bidzina Ivanishvili, chairman of “Georgian Dream” and his wife, Ekaterine Khvedelidze. First of all, we note that the mentioned article is based on false information and the facts already confirmed by Bidzina Ivanishvili are presented as “sensation” and “scandalous story.”

In particular, it is a complete lie that the honorary chairman of the ruling party bought some kind of property in the Russian Federation a few months ago. Spreading such lies without any evidence does not fit any kind of journalistic standards, it is completely unclear what the purpose of the article is. Since 1998 the founder of “Georgian Dream” has not bought any real estate in Russia. Moreover, Bidzina Ivanishvili and none of his family members has traveled to the Russian Federation since 1998.

As for another manipulative part of the article built on lies – it is not hidden from anyone that Bidzina Ivanishvili worked in Russia for years and accumulated a large part of assets in this country. In the property declaration filled out in 2013, the honorary chairman of “Georgian Dream” openly stated that his wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze owned a house and three plots of land in the capital of Russia. Accordingly, the attempt to portray the information as a “scandal”, which has been public for 11 years and all of this is reflected in the declaration, indicates only one thing – the author of the article has an order to impudently spread incorrect information about Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family.

We can consider this as a continuation of the 13-year hysteria that a number of foreign and local radical opposition media outlets have been continuously trying to carry out, but have not achieved the desired results. Since the arrival of Bidzina Ivanishvili in politics these people tried to find some kind of compromising facts, but they never managed to come up with anything but lies and lies, because, naturally, there is no fact that could exist against the honorary chairman of the ruling party and his family,” reads the statement.

The press service explained that the author Kelly Bloss attempted to communicate with the GD party. However, since it was evident what kind of article she intended to write, the press service refused to establish business relations with the author.

The GD underscored that Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family had not visited Russia since 1998 and had not purchased any property.

“During the preparation of the lie-soaked article its author, a certain Kelly Bloss, communicated with the press service of the ruling party, though the questions sent by them clearly indicated that there was no point in establishing business relations with them, and it was equally clear to us that the article was determined to spread false and manipulative information about Ivanishvili and his family.

Another important circumstance – at the admission level, if everything would be exactly as it was written in the article none of the false details cited by the authors contain any violation of the law – neither the purchase of property nor its possession. However, we emphasize once again that since 1998 Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family has never been in the Russian Federation, and since 1998 he has never acquired any property.

The saddest thing about this story is that the media outlets that are spreading this false article are funded by organizations such as the Open Society Foundation (Soros Foundation), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and others.

We urge the author of the article and the mass media that she works for, as well as those organizations that finance propaganda based on lies to refrain from spreading obvious lies next time. We also urge donors to share the responsibility for spreading lies and carefully consider the issue of financing such media in the future,” reads the statement of the GD’s press service.