PM: external pressure after 2022 ultimately strengthened Georgia’s sovereignty

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on Saturday that increased pressure on Georgia and its sovereignty after 2022 had forced the Government to take decisive steps, which he argued ultimately resulted in a significant strengthening of the country’s state sovereignty.

Speaking on Imedi TV’s Open Air programme, Kobakhidze said protecting Georgia’s sovereignty had been considerably more difficult in previous years, including as recently as six or seven years ago.

“After 2022, we were forced to act, and, in principle, this pressure also produced a positive result. We achieved what we had been unable to achieve before 2022 - we qualitatively strengthened state sovereignty. As for sovereignty, at certain stages in history, protecting sovereignty as we have managed to do today was much more difficult. I am not referring only to 15 years ago; the same can be said of even six or seven years ago, which is a much more recent period from today’s perspective. We were unable to do this then either”, he said.

He claimed that external interference had previously influenced political processes in Georgia, including the appointment of high-ranking officials.

“We have spoken about this many times - even high-ranking officials were appointed through external interference, so that we would not question certain things that were supposedly beneficial to us. However, in 2022, when pressure on the country and its sovereignty intensified, we were forced to act. In other words, what happened was also, in a sense, a result of this pressure. We had to take decisive steps to strengthen sovereignty”, he noted.

According to the Prime Minister, the Government also became more willing after 2022 to publicly criticise external actors and non-governmental organisations.

“Take the issue of external forces, for example. Before 2022, it was extremely difficult to say anything critical about specific forces, and I am not referring only to external forces. Take NGOs, for example. They are an absolutely paradoxical phenomenon in a democratic system, an artificially created phenomenon intended solely for external intervention. You could not say anything critical about NGOs”, he added.

Kobakhidze recalled an earlier instance in which he criticised NGOs for supporting what he described as a “fascist statement” by Nika Gvaramia, saying the remarks triggered what he characterised as a strong reaction both inside and outside Georgia.

“I remember once making a specific comment about NGOs when they supported what was truly a fascist statement - it was the well-known statement by [Nika] Gvaramia. This was followed by such a hysterical reaction from outside and inside the country that I do not even know how to describe it”, Kobakhidze concluded.