On September 18, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze spoke with journalists about recent U.S. sanctions, Georgian Dream’s approach to restoring territorial integrity, the presidentially-brokered coalition between opposition parties Lelo and Gakharia For Georgia, upcoming elections, and civil society organizations.
On U.S. Sanctions
The Prime Minister was asked to comment on the U.S. financial sanctions and visa restrictions imposed on 64 Georgian individuals, including two senior officials, for undermining Georgian democracy, as well as on the meeting with U.S. Ambassador Robin Dunnigan following the sanctions.
Prime Minister Kobakhidze stated that “such steps, such decisions do not help to reset relations” between the U.S. and Georgia. He noted that relations have been strained over the past four years, particularly because of the former U.S. Ambassador, and that therefore it is very important for Georgia to reset relations with the U.S. now, but “resetting relations requires a healthy and fair approach.”
“However, such sanctions, such steps don’t encourage a reset or relations, especially when they are imposed, for example, against high-ranking policemen, people who fought in the August war. This is certainly an extreme insult to our state. This is, naturally, unacceptable to us in principle, and I expressed my concern to the American Ambassador.” He went on: “And I also made one thing very clear – if one more step is taken in this direction, in that case we will have to discuss- in a principled way- the revision of certain positions. A non-partner attitude of such a state, which is called not only a partner, but also a strategic partner [of Georgia], is unacceptable for us in principle. Therefore, I call on everyone to act rationally, to act justly, this will benefit Georgian-American relations,” the Prime Minister said.
“As for the step taken the day before yesterday, it was aimed precisely at destroying Georgian-American relations, who benefits from it, you can decide for yourself,” – said Kobakhidze.
He also noted that he hoped this would be the “last decision in the direction of destruction of relations”, adding that he pointed this out during the meeting with the U.S. Ambassador. “I would like to personally thank Mme. Ambassador for her constructive attitude, but it seems that her constructive attitude is not enough to make overall sound decisions, which is very unfortunate.”
The prime minister also suggested that the decision to impose sanctions was made without the knowledge or approval of the US president: “Of course, we can all see that Biden does not make such decisions. Unfortunately, there are oligarchic problems [in the U.S.], and the result of these problems are the unjust decisions that are made. I will say again that I am sure that Biden is not even aware of this decision.”
He also elaborated on the Ambassador Dunnigan’s statement on the Georgian government spreading anti-Western disinformation, saying that these sanctions are “the real disinformation.” “If there is any disinformation, it is precisely this kind of decisions on sanctions, which are unfair statements that are spread all too often. I call on everyone to refrain from spreading disinformation about Georgia on such a large scale.”
Finally, the Prime Minister stated that “some hope” that these sanctions will increase the number of opposition voters and decrease the number of votes for GD is futile. He claimed this of being in the interest of “certain powers” who he alleged also wanted to start a war in Georgia in 2022. He added: “…the elections will end as in the interest of the Georgian society, the Georgian people. “Georgian Dream will win very decisively. We want to take more than 60% and today we have about 60%. Therefore, of course, such forces, the malefactors of our country, will not succeed in these elections.”
On the Intention to Apologize for the 2008 War
The Prime Minister was asked to comment on the statement by the founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, that Georgia will apologize for the August 2008 war, and how the opposition representatives considered this statement as “treacherous”.
“The crime these people [the opposition] committed in August 2008 was treason. You know very well what these people have done, and they want to cover up their betrayal with such, so to speak, false statements, but they won’t succeed. The public knows everything about this war, how it started, what happened before, how [ex-President] Saakashvili’s regime consistently took steps towards starting this war, in the end, what they did on August 7, in fact. Everyone knows everything, this memory does not fade,” he stated.
As for reconciliation with the occupied territories, Kobakhidze noted: “As far as reconciliation is concerned, it should be clarified here once again – there are two ways to restore the territorial integrity of Georgia, one theoretical way is war and the other theoretical way is reconciliation. Those who are against reconciliation automatically choose war. They are the war party. We, of course, have a different agenda, and reconciliation, after we have had a fratricidal war in the country, can only happen on the basis of mutual forgiveness. This is such a simple axiomatic truth that it can only be challenged by forces based on lies, based on violence. This is unacceptable to us.”
The Prime Minister was also asked to recall that the head of the Russian Federation Council’s Committee on International Affairs, Grigory Karasin praised Georgia for Bidzina Ivanishvili’s promise to apologize. Kobakhidze said: “We are not interested in external statements. Our opponents speak sometimes through the statements of [MEP Andrius] Kubilius, sometimes through the statements of Russian politicians; our national interests are the most important for us, and the only way we evaluate our own decisions is the extent to which our steps are in line with our national interests.”
On Anti-LGBT+ Legislation
On the adoption of the anti-LGBTQ+ legislative package and the critical reactions from the West to it, PM stated that such “brazen” statements were also made earlier about the Foreign Agents law, which was adopted by the Georgian Parliament for the sake of “transparency”, which should be the “basic principle” of the EU.
“Now we have passed the second law, which regulates the simplest thing, that a man should be a man and a woman should be a woman, a man should be called a man and a woman should be called a woman, and this is also proclaimed as a Russian law… In the perception of Georgian society, Europe cannot be associated with opacity and LGBT propaganda. This is wrong, it will certainly not fit the image of the European Union in the Georgian society,” he stated.
He further noted that in the perception of the GD, “Europe means first of all transparency, it means traditional values, it means Christian values.” Kobakhidze added: “For centuries Georgians aspired to Europe because we were united by common Christian traditions and Christian culture. If, on the contrary, you are told that the European Union today seems to be the opposite of Christian traditions, this is unacceptable. We believe that what unites Europe is, first of all, Christian values, and this is what the adopted law is dedicated to – the protection of traditional Christian values, the protection of family interests, the protection of the interests of minors”.
On Presidentially-Brokered Opposition Coalition
The Prime Minister spoke about the coalition announced by President Salome Zurabishvili between the coalition “Strong Georgia” led by Lelo and the party “For Georgia” led by ex-Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia. First of all, he stated that the President’s involvement in this was “of course unconstitutional” and declared that the coalition, if formed, would have no chance.
He called her mediation a “violation of the Constitution saying: “According to the Constitution, the President must be non-partisan… When in such a system, in the system of parliamentary government, the President is directly involved in the electoral processes as a side, this is another gross violation of the Constitution, although we are not surprised by Salome Zurabishvili’s violation of the Constitution… The good thing is that Salome Zurabishvili will not have any influence on the results of the elections in the country,” he noted.
As for the coalition itself, he noted that the two leaders of the Lelo and Gakharia parties used to be in constant verbal conflict with each other, calling each other “horrible words”, and now, according to him, because of the “unprincipled people” they are, they have decided to unite. Kobakhidze noted that such cases can be found in all opposition parties, and boasted that only the GD members have never done such a thing – first cursing someone and then asking them to join their party.
He claimed that the fact that the opposition parties are trying to unite despite their past feuds proves that “they are working on orders from outside” and that “they are ordinary agents who do as they are told.
On CSOs “Discrediting” Elections
Finally, Prime Minister Kobakhidze was asked about the Central Election Commission’s claim that local observer NGOs were “discrediting” the upcoming elections. Agreeing with this claim, h stated that this was the only thing left for the “radical opposition” and the NGOs associated with it to do, since the Georgian Dream party, according to him, is “already winning the elections with 60% of the vote”. He said that the party is trying to increase this number to more than 60% by election day and the opposition is losing “terribly”.
He then repeated the old adage about the “rich NGOs” saying: “The third sector does not really exist in Georgia. There are some rich NGOs that are completely externally funded, their funding is completely transparent, and they have clearly defined political goals and objectives. Therefore, it is not at all in their interest to observe the elections. The only thing they are observing is that they somehow want the radical opposition, the collective [United] National Movement, to win these elections, even though this is an absolutely unattainable result for them.” He claimed that “there are no local impartial monitoring organizations in Georgia,” adding: “All the big, rich organizations that “observe” the elections are actually political associations directly linked to the radical opposition.”