Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder of the Lelo opposition party, says Georgia is facing "existential threats" from Russia and pro-Russian forces in Georgia, and that a "powerful national platform" should be established to ensure the presence of the US military in Georgia, the signing of a free trade agreement with the US as soon as possible, and the adoption of a lustration law to reveal enemy spies in the public sector.

Khazaradze stated in a recent Facebook post that the current Georgian Dream government's policies 'contradict national interests,' and urged people to rally behind his idea.

"All interested parties are invited to a round-table discussion on the plan and how to execute it," Khazaradze added.

Irakli Kadagishvili, a member of the ruling party, claims that Khazaradze's idea offers nothing new.

He stated that US-Georgia military and political cooperation is ‘at an all-time-high’ and that major steps have already been taken to sign a free trade agreement with the US.

"As for the lustration law, when the opposition refused to take up their mandates after the 2020 parliamentary elections, it… made the enemy happy,” Kadagishvili said.

The Georgian parliament suspended Khazaradze's MP status on November 16.

He himself submitted the request in early November in protest of what he claimed were the ‘fabricated’ results of the recent municipal elections in October.

Khazaradze entered politics in 2019, shortly after he was charged with laundering 16.7 million USD, along with another founder of TBC Bank, Badri Japaridze.

Lelo for Georgia won four seats in parliament in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

In the recent municipal elections, Lelo candidates failed to win any of the mayoral constituencies as the GD candidates won 63 of the 64 constituencies, while the UNM candidate carried one.