Ruling Georgian Dream party official accuses opposition groups of misleading public on Georgia’s support for Ukraine

Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party parliamentary faction, has sharply criticised opposition parties, non-governmental organisations and activists, accusing them of displaying what he described as “lack of patriotism, fascist tendencies, ignorance, falsehood and hypocrisy” since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In a social media message, Machavariani claimed that opposition groups, NGOs and what he called “ultra-left, pseudo-liberal activists” supported narratives and policies that he said could have drawn Georgia into direct military confrontation with Russia.

According to Machavariani, many of the promises made to Ukraine at the beginning of the war, including rapid accession to NATO and the European Union, the transfer of frozen Russian assets, and military victory over Russia with Western support, have not materialised.

“The war has been going on for five years. Not a single one of these promises has been fulfilled, and not a single one of these issues has been protested by these “sincere” Ukrainian fans. We have not heard a single word from any of these actors about the injustice done to Ukraine. And the reason is that their patrons also represent the same power that made these promises”, he said.
The Georgian Dream lawmaker also accused critics of the government of demonstrating selective solidarity by focusing on Ukrainian refugees while, in his view, paying insufficient attention to Georgian internally displaced persons.

“We remember the agent network’s performative concern for Ukrainian refugees. Helping others is, of course, a noble and commendable act. However, if you have not done even a fraction for a Georgian refugee who has endured the same hardship as you have for a foreign citizen, it creates the impression that your actions are insincere and hypocritical, driven more by trends than by genuine compassion”, he noted.

“We remember the complete hysteria around the Ukrainian flag. The constant waving of the flag, hanging it from balconies, and putting stickers in the colors of the Ukrainian flag on cars, phones, and various other items. When you have not done even a hundredth of that in the colors of the Georgian flag, here too you leave a legitimate impression that you are fake and hypocritical, and that you are doing this only for the sake of a trend”, he continued.

Machavariani further claimed that the opposition’s support for Prigozhin’s so-called “revolution” was an extreme manifestation of ignorance.

“The proxy opposition, wealthy NGOs and their ultra-left, pseudo-liberal activists, excited and agitated, were cheering for Prigozhin to seize power. The man who was the main architect of the mass killing of innocent people, including the massacre in Bucha, was someone they wanted to see become the ruler of one of the world’s most powerful nuclear states. They believed that under Prigozhin, the world would be fairer and safer.”, he noted.

“When Ukraine recalled its Ambassador from Georgia over the failure to meet demands that would have led to an immediate military confrontation with Russia, the agency tried to force the government to meet these demands, that is, to drag the country into the war. I spoke about this issue at length in one of my previous posts. And when Mr. Zelensky expelled our heroic Ambassador from Ukraine, the pests did not even dare to raise their voices. The Ambassador had not left Kyiv for a moment during the bombing. They knew that if they spoke out, they would face a severe backlash from their masters”, he continued.

Machavariani also stressed that the radicals used the most fascist methods to prevent people from expressing their opinions about the war if those opinions did not fit the narrative created globally by their patrons.

He added that opposition parties, NGOs and activists owed an apology to Georgian society, arguing that their positions and actions during the war had been harmful and misleading.

“All these years, representatives of the proxy network have been trying to create the perception that we are not helping Ukraine. They have been trying to impose this perception on our citizens using fascist methods. Not a single one of their representatives has ever mentioned that we have joined all resolutions and international documents in support of Ukraine, sheltered up to 30,000 Ukrainian refugees, provided them with social assistance, and given children the opportunity to study in their native language, while also ranking among the leading countries in terms of the volume of humanitarian assistance provided to Ukraine. No country of our size and capabilities has done as much in this regard. We, together with the Georgian people, will remind you every day that you owe an apology to the overwhelming majority of our society for so much harmful behavior and filth”, Machavariani concluded.