Georgia’s ruling party official: collective United National Movement opposition, wealthy NGOs sought to drag Georgia into war

Levan Machavariani, the first deputy chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party faction in the legislative body, on Tuesday said the collective United National Movement opposition and several wealthy NGOs were the actors through whom, he claimed, “Eurocrats and informal oligarchic governance” had sought to drag Georgia into a war.

In his remarks, Machavariani argued that the collective United National Movement and wealthy non-governmental organisations were acting on instructions from external forces.

“These agents - the collective United National Movement and wealthy NGOs - were, of course, acting on instructions from outside. These are the actors through whose hands Eurocrats and informal oligarchic governance tried to involve Georgia in the war”, he said.

Additionally, he said there were calls for the transfer of weapons to Ukraine and for volunteer fighters to be sent to Ukraine on charter flights with official government approval.

“One demand was the imposition of sanctions. In addition, there were two other demands - one was the transfer of weapons to Ukraine, and the second was the departure of volunteer fighters to Ukraine on a charter flight with official government consent”, Machavariani concluded.

Georgian Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday said that amid ongoing global crises, the country should recall that it narrowly avoided being drawn into a war in 2022.

Papuashvili recalled the statements by Eka Gigauri, the executive director of Transparency International Georgia, and opposition leader Zurab Japaridze, who in 2022 after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, voiced escalatory rhetoric that could push the country toward dangerous confrontation with Russia.