“What matters to us is Georgia’s survival, and that is why we are in the Alliance. Whether it is good or bad, whether people like us or loathe us, we give that a hundredth-order priority,” said Giorgi Baramidze, one of the leaders of the United National Movement, at a briefing.

Baramidze stated that they are obliged to work with parties that represent a meaningful segment of society.

“Nobody here is a fool, and everyone knows perfectly well the strength of the United National Movement, of our team, of President Saakashvili’s team. It is precisely the United National Movement, under President Saakashvili’s leadership, that has been in Putin’s crosshairs all these years, and in the crosshairs of Putin’s puppet regime here. That is no accident. If President Saakashvili and the United National Movement did not genuinely represent Georgian society, this regime would not be expending such enormous resources against us. We pay far less attention to who is saying what, and why.

What matters to us is Georgia’s survival, and that is why we are in the Alliance. Whether that Alliance is flawed or functional, weak or at times wholly unreasonable, whether its members like us or despise us, we give all of that a hundredth-order priority. What we do value is the unity of Georgia, the unity of the Georgian people. We are obliged to cooperate with parties that represent parts of our society, and to pay less heed to the mud they fling at us and the unfair assessments they make.

This is Mikheil Saakashvili’s approach, it is our party’s approach, our team’s approach: to put Georgia first, and to let grievances and insults pass largely unnoticed. It is impossible to ignore them entirely, which is why President Saakashvili responds when he deems it necessary. As he has said before, Georgia has been hijacked by terrorists. We are all on that plane, and they intend to crash it into the ground. That is why everyone on board, whether we love one another or not, must unite to wrest the controls from these terrorists, and bring Georgia safely to land at the airport of peace, which goes by the names of NATO, the European Union, Georgia’s reunification, and the prosperity of our country,” said Baramidze.