Georgian PM claims “modern-day traitors heading to Washington to harm country”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday claimed “modern-day traitors” were “heading to Washington to harm the country”, in comments after Ivane Chkhikvadze, the European Union Integration Programme Manager at the Civil Society Foundation, Natalie Sabanadze, the former Georgian Ambassador to the EU and William Courtney, the former US Ambassador to Georgia, on Tuesday featured in a congressional hearing in the United States on “supporting Georgia’s sovereignty and democracy” following the Georgian Government’s adoption of a controversial law on transparency of foreign influence.

Kobakhidze likened Chkhikvadze and Sabanadze to Sergo Orjonikidze, a Georgian-born Bolshevik whose name is used as an epitome of betrayal in the domestic public, for their actions.

[A] century ago, between 1920 and 1921, exactly such letters were sent to Moscow, exactly like this [similar figures] went to Moscow and made such statements [...] - all this ultimately led to the occupation of Georgia [by the Red Army in 1921]”, he alleged.

In comments at the hearing, Sabanadze claimed democracy in Georgia was being “destroyed by the hands of the parliamentary supermajority” of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Chkhikvadze further alleged the controversial law would “fully erase the critical voices and destroy the vibrant civil society” that had been built in the country “with the generous support of our friends and partners” over the years.

The recently adopted law requires registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in Georgia as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.