Ruling party MP denounces EU official Kaja Kallas for “interference”, cites her husband’s alleged Russia business links

Levan Machavariani, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party and Deputy Chair of the parliamentary faction of the ruling party, on Sunday strongly criticised European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos over their recent statements about the political developments in Georgia.

Machavariani’s comments came after the statement by the EU High Representative and the Commissioner for Enlargement on Friday said that the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR report on the latest elections in Georgia should be implemented “as a matter of urgency”.

Machavariani pointed to a controversy involving Kallas’ husband, which surfaced while she was serving as Estonia’s Prime Minister, in reference to the 2023 reports alleging that Stark Logistics, a company partly owned by Kallas’s husband Arvo Hallik, continued to do business in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.

“Kallas’ husband was exposed in a serious scandal, revealing that he had business dealings in Russia and was receiving substantial dividends. To this day, she has not provided an explanation for this. She should first address such issues before allowing herself to interfere in the internal affairs of another country”, the ruling party official said.

He further criticised EU officials for what he described as “double standards” regarding the OSCE/ODIHR report on the parliamentary elections held in Georgia last October.

“When it is convenient for them [European high-ranking officials] to refer to the OSCE/ODIHR report, they insist that we must wait for its conclusions. However, when the OSCE/ODIHR report confirmed that elections in Georgia were competitive and that the country has a legitimately elected government, they disregard it and claim that its findings do not matter. This is a clear example of double standards”, he concluded.

The remarks come amid heightened political tensions between Georgia and EU officials, with the ruling party frequently accusing Western officials of bias and double standards in assessing the country’s democratic processes.