TBILISI, May 2. /TASS/. Joining the West’s anti-Russian sanctions would be akin to suicide for Georgia, Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi and a senior official of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia ruling party, said on Tuesday.

"We said it absolutely openly that we were not joining the sanctions because we did not want to harm our country or our people. How can we join the sanctions when we are not sure that this would do any harm to Russia? On the contrary, we would have only hurt ourselves, it would be hara-kiri," he said.

According to the politician, Georgia doesn't want to open "a second front" against Russia as it already went through a war in 2008, and this brought nothing but misfortune to the country. "That is why the most important things now are peace, stability, and economic development," he stressed.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili said on February 25, 2022 that he did not plan to impose sanctions on Russia, citing national interests. In early March 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky recalled the Ukrainian ambassador from Tbilisi "for the immoral position" of the Georgian authorities on this issue.