Speaker Papuashvili Roasts Opponents, Frames Elections as “Choice between War and Peace”
In a briefing devoted entirely to refuting the opponents’ criticism of the ruling party’s Russia policy, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili slammed the “radical” opposition, civil society organizations, and Georgia’s Western partners. He accused those who criticized the government for its refusal to impose sanctions and for rapprochement with Russia of trying to drag Georgia into a war with Russia and claimed that the Georgian Dream had “averted war.” Papuashvili also said the October elections are “the simplest choice between war and peace.”
In his lengthy speech, Papuashvili denounced the “hypocrisy” of the “radical opposition” for flip-flopping turn on Russia sanctions. The Speaker said the “radical opposition,” which “in the past sowed hysteria which was raised to a xenophobic level, today began to talk about trade in wine and apples with Russia and the benefits that Russian tourists bring.” He claimed that “the Georgian people have already shown their first wave of wrath towards the opposition.” Noting that “the people support the forward-looking policy of the GD,” he said it’s not surprising that “all those who were pushing us towards the war are now speaking of peace, and all those who were pushing farmers and entrepreneurs towards bankruptcy are now talking about trade with Russia.”
Papuashvili said that the last two years revealed that “at all critical moments, the opposition and its NGOs were not on the side of the Georgian people,” adding, “each time they looked not at what our people wanted, but at what the others needed, and for what word or action they would be praised from outside [of Georgia].” He thus concluded: “If the opposition manages to get even an ounce of power, Georgia will return to the chaos of war and destruction from which we saved the country.”
The Speaker called out the “radical opposition” and NGO representatives who have made pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian statements since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Among them, according to him, there were calls to send volunteer military personnel and ammunition to Ukraine, to close the skies to Russia, to abolish direct flights with Russia, to introduce a visa regime with Russian citizens, to impose the “occupation tax”, etc. In this way, Papuashvili said, these people were trying to drag the country into a war with Russia.
Devoting a large part of his briefing to quoting various CSOs and party representatives, he also accused political opponents “and their NGOs” of stirring up hysteria over the “alleged influx” of Russian citizens into the country. “The goal of this xenophobic campaign was to create unbearable conditions for Russian citizens in Georgia and force the state to impose the visa regime,” Papuashvili said.
He claimed that had the government taken all the anti-Russian measures demanded by the opposition, the only result would have been “an escalation with Russia, which would end up dragging Georgia into both an economic and a hot war with Russia.”
Papuashvili said that no country or organization had given Georgia security guarantees that the imposition of sanctions against Russia would not result in an economic crisis or military conflict for Georgia. He added that not only did Georgia lack such guarantees, but, as he claimed, “the imposition of sanctions was even mentioned as one of the preconditions for obtaining EU candidate status.”
He said President Salome Zurabishvili’s statement that no one was asking Georgia to impose sanctions against Russia was “not true.” He elaborated: “Many foreigners realized that the public demand for Georgia to impose sanctions [against Russia] would provoke an appropriate reaction from society.” Therefore, he said these demands were “made either behind closed doors or indirectly.”
However, Papuashvili noted that there were also “public condemnations of Georgia’s policy” and “public calls” on Georgia to impose sanctions, citing the April 2022 resolution of the Lithuanian Parliament, the December 2022 resolution of the European Parliament, the September 2023 statement of the Lithuanian President, and the February 2023 statement of the spokesman of the External Service of the European Commission.
“What and how the foreigners demanded behind closed doors is another topic of conversation, and its time will come, of course,” he said.
“Precisely because the Georgian Dream did not put the interests of anyone above the interests of the Georgian people, today we are practically the only island of peace in the burning region and have the highest economic growth rate in Europe,” Papuashvili said.
Thus, he said, “On October 26, our citizens will have the simplest and clearest choice, because it is a choice between war and peace, destruction and progress, and the party of war and the party of peace.”
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