Political “bad weather” behind US Helsinki Commission delay, says Georgian Parliament official

Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Regional Policy and Self-Government Committee, on Wednesday commented on the US Helsinki Commission's postponement of a briefing on Georgia, attributing it not to literal bad weather but to “political bad weather” linked to Congressman Joe Wilson's MEGOBARI Act.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Kadagishvili described foreign criticisms of Georgia as lacking novelty, consisting of recycled messages that have circulated for years.

“They are simply acting out of inertia, because they have come up with nothing new regarding Georgia and have not developed any new vision”, he said.

The official suggested that instead of staying silent, these actors repeated old narratives to maintain high levels of political polarisation within the country, likening it to replaying a familiar tune.

“If we look closely at their statements, we will not see anything new, because they are reviving old messages that have already been well-worn over several years. Instead of remaining silent, they chose to remind us once again of those familiar old messages and to keep the temperature of polarisation from dropping. This is an attempt to replay a well-known old song”, he noted.

Regarding the briefing postponement, he argued it reflected underlying political dynamics rather than meteorological issues.

“I think this is more a matter of political bad weather related to Wilson’s so-called MEGOBARI Act, given that wherever Joe Wilson’s harmful act could have been reflected, it was not taken into account anywhere”, he said.

Kadagishvili pointed to continued US cooperation with Georgia's Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Internal Affairs as evidence that the administration had not adopted such punitive approaches.

“On the contrary, you saw that during this period the US administration demonstrated concrete examples of cooperation, both with our Ministry of Defence and with the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, Kadagishvili concluded.

Due to weather-related disruptions, the US Helsinki Commission postponed its planned briefing on the situation in Georgia.