Georgian premier accuses EU officials of promoting extremism

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
Photo: msn.com

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused European officials of encouraging extremism in Georgia.

Kobakhidze made the remarks while responding to a Swedish government representative’s recent statements, saying Tbilisi has concrete evidence of foreign involvement in domestic unrest.

“When we talk to Europeans, we say that we have facts. Let’s counter this with facts, not lies and general statements,” he said. “They were directly on stage, making calls, giving instructions on the Maidan. These are facts.”

Referring to a video shared by Georgia’s parliament speaker, the premier claimed it showed foreign actors giving direct instructions to demonstrators, which he called “indisputable evidence.”

“When we tell you that you are encouraging extremism, we prove it with facts, videos, and your financing practices,” he added, accusing unnamed European actors of funding radical movements in the country.

Kobakhidze argued that instead of addressing these claims factually, European counterparts respond with vague accusations and “lies.”

"The opposition’s representatives are traveling to obtain instructions, they don’t even have their own opinion, they are merely agents. They visit various offices abroad to receive instructions, tasks, and then implement them," he said.

The head of the Georgian government noted that there is an advantage to this as, thanks to the instructions from foreign countries, the Georgian opposition is acting in a completely self-destructive way. "They are receiving such directives from abroad, which eventually lead to the complete elimination of the opposition itself. Let them attend such meetings, receive instructions and directives. We have already seen what they came down to and will see in the future where they will end up," the Georgian prime minister added, TASS quotes.

The Georgian government is to close its information centre on NATO and the European Union, Georgian media reported on Wednesday, citing the country's foreign ministry, amid souring ties between Tbilisi and the West, Reuters writes.

The centre, opened in 2005, is based in a large building on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi and flies the flags of the EU, the NATO military alliance and Georgia.

Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the centre is to be merged into the foreign ministry and that some staff have been told they are to be dismissed. The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Georgia has been an EU candidate member since 2023, while NATO said in 2008 that the mountainous country of 3.6 million would eventually join the alliance.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, has said the EU and NATO are controlled by a shadowy "global war party" that seeks to topple the government and drag his country into war with Russia.

Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party in November 2024 paused EU accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a popular national goal that is written into the country's constitution.

The EU has said Tbilisi's application has been frozen over laws on "foreign agents" and LGBT (banned in Russia) rights that Brussels has criticised as restrictive and influenced by Russian policies .

Tbilisi and Moscow have had no formal diplomatic ties since 2008, when Russia defeated Georgia in a brief war over two Moscow-backed separatist regions.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted a report on Georgia, where it urged the opposition to take part in Georgia’s local elections in October. Some in the Georgian opposition completely reject any participation in the elections because they believe that last year’s parliamentary elections were rigged. Others in the opposition are in favor of discussing the possibility of participating in the elections to municipal power structures.

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