United National Movement (UNM) member Gia Baramidze says former President Salome Zourabichvili fails to grasp that the current process is not a “passive boycott” but a refusal to cooperate with what he termed a “treacherous regime”.

“It’s unclear why Salome Zourabichvili doesn’t understand that when we’re talking about a farce, a Russian special operation, and that one shouldn’t participate in it, in legal and political terms, this is called a boycott,” Baramidze said.

He welcomed part of the President’s statement where she called the process “a Russian special operation”, saying: “We welcome this correct assessment from everyone in this direction – it’s so clear that it doesn’t even require political expertise.”

However, Baramidze expressed confusion about the former President’s position on boycotting. “Unfortunately, she seems not to understand that the National Movement, other political parties – eight parties have made statements on this – along with many authoritative NGOs, civil groups, citizens, and the entire protest movement in Georgia’s capital and regions, this is not passive boycotting.”

He described the action as “refusing to cooperate with a treacherous, criminal, Russian regime, refusing to collaborate with it, and non-violent, peaceful but active confrontation.”

Baramidze said the National Movement was “actively involved in the process of exposing the regime” and communicating with society to activate citizens who, for various reasons, were not engaged in determining the country’s fate.

“Therefore, boycott is a conditional word – a more accurate term would be non-violent, peaceful resistance to the traitors’ and criminals’ Russian regime, non-recognition of it, refusal to collaborate with it. This is the essence of our struggle,” he concluded.