On July 8, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the chairman of the ruling “Georgian Dream” party, responded to the indefinite postponement of the “Noble Partner 2024” exercise by the United States. In response to the US statement, according to which the said decision was “due to the Georgian government’s false accusations against the United States and other western entities, to pressure Georgia to open a second front against Russia.” Mdinaradze called the statement incomprehensible, stating that the Georgian authorities have never voiced disinformation against the European Union and the US, and have never accused them of attempting to open a second front for them.
Mamuka Mdinaradze: “Name one false accusation or disinformation that Georgian Dream voiced against the USA. No MP from the Georgian Dream, no member of the government, no representative of the government has ever said that the European Union, the United States of America are bad or anything like that. We have never blamed the United States of America for the second front. Nor have we ever called the US a global war party. Give me one example, when we called the United States of America a global war party!”
In fact, since 2022 the ruling party has been trying to directly or indirectly accuse the US and Europe of organizing a coup in Georgia and dragging the country into a war with Russia. In the 2022 report of the “Media Development Foundation”, which deals with anti-Western propaganda messages, “Georgian Dream” was included among the parties that talked about the danger of Georgia’s involvement in the war and the development of the Maidan scenario.
The anti-Western messages from the authorities became more assertive following the resolution passed by the European Parliament in June 2022, which criticized the Georgian government and recommended the imposition of sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili. A little later, on June 23, 2022, the European Council granted the candidate status only to Ukraine and Moldova, leaving Georgia as the only member from the Associated Trio without the status. The leaders of the “Georgian Dream” Irakli Gharibashvili, Kakha Kaladze, and Irakli Kobakhidze responded to the mentioned fact and linked both the resolution of the European Parliament and the candidate status to Georgia’s refusal to join the war.
Irakli Garibashvili: „It turns out that Georgia should be punished because there is no war in Georgia today? It was directly said that Ukraine was given the status because Ukraine is at war..“
Irakli Kobakhidze: “You often scold us these days for not being granted the candidate status by the European Commission. This is what is written in the conclusion: we did not join the war and were not granted candidacy. We speak openly about the war because it is, among other things, Macron’s words that because of the war, Ukraine was granted the candidacy, when Ukraine did not deserve it.
Kakha Kaladze: „These statements are very sad and the fact that the country is being punished because it did not go to war… If each of us were sanctioned, the country would not go to war. There will be peace and tranquility in the country, and economic development of the country will take place. First of all, the ones who are pretending to be friends of our country, they should drag their countries to war.”
Notably, in response to criticism from the West, statements of similar content from the side of the “Georgian Dream” continued in 2023-2024, although in some cases, politicians of the ruling party try to blame individual Western politicians, not the European Union structures or the US government, for creating unrest in Georgia and trying to open a second front. Despite this, there were still cases when the statements of the representatives of the ruling party were directly aimed at the US administration and the European Union. For example, on June 7, 2024, members of “Georgian Dream” Paata Kvizhinadze and Vladimir Bozhadze announced that the US was trying to organize a revolution and a second front in Georgia. On April 25 of this year, the Minister of Culture, Thea Tsulukiani, noted that the refusal to grant Georgia candidate status was a punitive measure on the part of the European Union, because a second front was not opened in Georgia.
The Georgian government also systematically spreads the conspiracy theory that the “Global War Party” is interested in creating unrest in Georgia. In this case, “Georgian Dream” does not directly name which groups/countries represent the “Global War Party;” however, according to their statements, they are “highly influential” forces that are blackmailing Bidzina Ivanishvili and also have a critical influence on the official structures of the US and the European Union.
Regarding the topic of war and the opening of the second front, see the statements made by “Georgian Dream” politicians at different times:
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2022 |
2023 |
2024 (including June) |
| Irakli Garibashvili: „It turns out that Georgia should be punished because there is no war in Georgia today? It was directly said that Ukraine was given the status because Ukraine is at war..“ |
Mikheil Sarjveladze: “It is better for the opposition to give an answer to the question, for example, how legitimate or reasonable do they think it is when individual citizens of foreign countries arrive and talk specifically about the fact that in advance, regardless of whether there is a reason or not, a revolutionary scenario should be played out in Georgia and a Maidan should be staged in the streets of Tbilisi.” |
Shalva Papuashvili: ‘’Our country, which is not protected by NATO or the European Union, no one protects us except ourselves, we certainly could not allow ourselves to put our people at risk of war and bloodshed. But we were told so, to impose sanctions. Some European leaders, some presidents of EU member states still tell us this today…
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| Irakli Kobakhidze: “When some people try to stir up the rhetoric of war and the [US] ambassador doesn’t distance herself from that, it naturally raises some questions.” |
Irakli Kobakhidze: “I read the [US] embassy statement, I was shocked, I can tell you directly. This is an absolutely disturbing statement that we have heard. Instead of seeing the process of distancing from the processes directly related to the revolution, we saw an absolutely different statement. This is outrageous. The Georgian society wants peace in this country and does not want the revolution and the trouble that the revolution brought to our friend Ukraine. The society expects to hear a different position from the US Embassy, a position that they will not support revolutionary scenarios, although yesterday’s statement was completely shocking and insulting to the Georgian society. |
Paata Kvizhinadze: ‘’I don’t know who exactly was affected by the sanctions, but it doesn’t matter to me…that the current US administration is trying to organize a color revolution, no one, including the opposition, denies it. If this government is changed, what forces will come to power, it is also not difficult to guess. The question is, if this happened and these people were instructed to do what we were asked to do – join the sanctions and engage in the war in various ways (second front, etc.) what would they do? I think it is clear – they will agree without saying a word. After that, what will happen in Georgia is already clear (Ukrainization). |
| Zaza Papuashvili: „We are only needed so that they can use us as cannon fodder, as Saakashvili did in 2008! Russia should periodically attack us, then everyone, including NATO and the EU, will hide and the US will complain – look what huge Russia does to small Georgia! This is, it turns out, our function!”“ |
Irakli Kobakhidze: “We will need to get explanations in this regard – why USAID funded such a training, the direct purpose of which was to prepare for a revolution in Georgia.” |
Vladimer Bozhadze: ‘’So Mikheil Saakashvili, who stole billions from Georgia, the builder of the country, and Bidzina Ivanishvili, who spent 10,000,000,000 GEL for Georgia the one who ruined the country? Will the bloody revolution, the Maidan, and the second front bring happiness and peace, stability, and development to the Georgian people? The N1 state in the world imposes sanctions and threatens a country of 4 million only because it wants peace and not war, development, and not destruction. |
| Kakha Kaladze: „These statements are very sad and the fact that the country is being punished because it did not go to war… If each of us were sanctioned, the country would not go to war. There will be peace and tranquility in the country, and economic development of the country will take place. First of all, the ones who are pretending to be friends of our country, they should drag their countries to war.” |
Kahka Kaladze: „Attacks, pressures, insults. We remember what statements were made, how our so-called foreign friends attacked us about the imposition of sanctions, on the second front, etc. But we stood firm, we took a principled position, and who won by that? our country did.” |
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| Irakli Kobakhidze: “You often scold us these days for not being granted the candidate status by the European Commission. This is what is written in the conclusion: we did not join the war and were not granted candidacy. We speak openly about the war because it is, among other things, Macron’s words that because of the war, Ukraine was granted the candidacy, when Ukraine did not deserve it. |
Thea Tsulukiani: “The goal was, the same as before, to punish Georgia, when Moldova and Ukraine were granted the status of candidate for membership and Georgia was not, then this punitive measure, which we romantically called an unjust decision until now, but it was actually a punitive measure, because of something that we didn’t do it, I mean to open the second front…” |
