Georgia’s ruling party official says opposition, NGOs owe public apology over ‘Russian Law’ campaign, psychological terror

Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party parliamentary faction, said on Friday that the “proxy opposition”, affiliated non-governmental organisations, and activists owe an apology to the Georgian public for their campaigns surrounding the so-called “Russian law”, as well as for protests held after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war and what he called psychological pressure exerted on society.

In his remarks, Machavariani noted that these groups have spent years attempting to impose their agenda on citizens and have engaged in psychological intimidation against people holding different views.

He argued that the public should carefully reflect on developments of recent years in order to prevent what he described as “agents” and “pseudo-liberals” from subjecting Georgian citizens to “psychological terror” in the future.

“As I noted several days ago, the proxy opposition, the wealthy NGOs affiliated with them, and their ultra-left, pseudo-liberal activists are prepared to use fascist methods to psychologically destroy any individual who refuses to blindly believe their fabricated stories without thought or analysis”, he said.

Referring to the controversy over the foreign agents legislation, commonly referred to by opponents as the “Russian law”, Machavariani described the campaign against the bill as a “fraudulent” effort and said those involved should apologize to the majority of Georgian society.

He also criticised protests and public campaigns that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, recalling that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy withdrew Ukraine’s Ambassador from Georgia after Tbilisi declined to impose sanctions on Russia, send volunteers to Ukraine on a chartered flight with government approval, or transfer Georgian weaponry to Ukraine.

Machavariani claimed that opposition groups organised an “unrestrained campaign” in response, accusing those who did not participate in demonstrations of being pro-Russian and subjecting them to public criticism and pressure.

“Any rational person understands that fulfilling the above-mentioned demands would have automatically meant military confrontation with Russia”, he said, arguing that the Georgian government’s refusal to comply with those demands helped the country avoid war.

He added that opposition parties, NGOs, and activists should apologize both for pressuring the government to adopt policies that could have led to conflict with Russia and for what he described as attempts to force citizens to join protests through “fascist methods”.

He concluded by saying that society must be reminded of similar episodes from recent years to ensure that Georgians remain vigilant and do not allow “agents” and “ultra-left pseudo-liberals” to place citizens under psychological pressure again.