Scarier Than Thou: Georgian Dream’s Radical Sidekicks

In Georgia, a platform calling itself United Neutral Georgia has decided to become a political party. The group, which echoes the ruling Georgian Dream’s (GD) anti-Western talking points but goes harder on conspiracy and culture-war content, framed its move as an act of patriotic rescue: “We can no longer depend on a government lost in Euro-illusions or a stateless, agentura-driven opposition,” it said, promising a founding congress soon. The same platform is now loudly demanding a “referendum” on EU membership, clearly hinting that it hopes the public will turn away from its decades-long European aspirations.

If this feels familiar, that is because it is. Georgia’s radical parties rarely gain traction on their own; in a political landscape dominated by Georgian Dream, they tend to be tolerated, cultivated, or even formed by the ruling party, and, when no longer needed, dismantled, suppressed, or reabsorbed. This is a part of the engineered political space. GD has consistently denied legitimacy to its real rivals and now even plans to ban them, so it constructs an ersatz politics, where the (more and more radical) ruling party occupies the centre; the scary people shout from the wings; and GD tells Western partners and cautious Georgian voters, if not us, then them.

Embrace and condone…

Old timers

In the early, more moderate years of Georgian Dream’s rule, the party often chose to condone, or even embrace, existing ultra-conservative forces. One of the first among them was the Alliance of Patriots, a nativist party with suspected Kremlin ties and a platform built on social conservatism, anti–United National Movement rhetoric, and calls for “neutrality” toward Russia. Led by veteran journalist Irma Inashvili, the party had its own political roots and history. Still, rather than posing a threat to the ruling party, AoP initially appeared electorally beneficial to them. It helped normalize hard-line, anti-Western rhetoric, ran the “blood-stained posters” campaign vilifying the UNM on behalf of the ruling party, while granting it plausible deniability. The party drew particular attention after the 2016 parliamentary elections, when it barely – and to some, suspiciously – crossed the 5% threshold (5.01%).

The downturn came after the 2020 parliamentary elections, when the AoP joined the opposition’s boycott. A group of wealthy businessmen, lower down on the proportional list, distanced themselves from the boycott and entered the Parliament. These men went on to form a tiny hardline parliamentary faction, ironically named the European Socialists, which collaborated closely with Georgian Dream.

Street muscle

Then came the street muscle. Georgian March burst into public view in 2017 and again during the Pride events of 2019, styling itself as a defender of “tradition” and “the nation.” It was consistently homophobic, intermittently violent, and plugged into the broader pro-Kremlin disinformation scene. Led by Sandro Bregadze, the movement occasionally aligned with ultra-conservative businessman Levan Vasadze, making its presence felt in the streets. Both the Georgian March and Vasadze later sought entry into electoral politics, but by around 2020-2021, the groups had begun to disintegrate, either merging with other right-wing forces or fading from the political scene.

A more effective project was that of Alt-Info, an “alt-right” media group that launched a political party – the Conservative Movement – in 2021, just as its predecessors were retreating into the shadows. Their pro-Moscow sentiments were laid bare through their visits to Russia and photos of leaders posing on Red Square. Alt-Info rose to particular infamy by orchestrating homophobic pogroms in July 2021, ahead of a planned – and later cancelled – Pride march. Dozens of journalists were injured as police looked the other way, while organizers remained largely unpunished, fueling concerns that Georgian Dream was not only condoning the violence but perhaps working in concert with it.

By 2022, the Conservative Movement began expanding rapidly, opening offices one by one across Georgia’s regions and prompting mounting questions about its funding. Then, as the parliamentary elections neared in 2024 and Georgian Dream increasingly integrated the conservative talking points into its own rhetoric, the Public Registry revoked the Conservative Movement registration on a technicality. When Alt-Info sought to re-enter politics through a shell party, that attempt was also blocked. Ultimately, the group had to run on a joint list with what remained of the Alliance of Patriots. It nevertheless made a modest comeback during the partially boycotted 2025 municipal elections, securing a single seat in Tbilisi’s self-government body (Sakrebulo).

…or create your own

With existing far-right forces struggling under mounting pressure from the ruling party, Georgian Dream gradually turned to DIY radical groups, including those spawned from its own parliamentary ranks. The shift began in 2022, when mid-ranking GD MPs staged a theatrical split to form People’s Power. They floated the first draft of the “foreign agents” law, spun conspiracies around the Swiss banking issues of GD founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, hurled insults at the West, and accused NGOs of plotting revolution – in short, they publicly voiced what GD wanted in the discourse, without putting it on the party’s own letterhead.

The group officially registered as a party in March 2024, but largely failed to establish itself as an independent force. In the 2024 parliamentary elections, the group ran on the same party list as Georgian Dream.

Which brings us back to United Neutral Georgia, a group of hardliners also aligned with Georgian Dream but more bureaucratically distanced, allowing the ruling party greater deniability.

The group first appeared in July 2024 as a ruling-party-aligned, pro-“neutrality” project, claiming that Georgia had become a “political hostage” of EU integration. Its rhetoric, “Euro-illusions,” “agentura,” a referendum on Europe, is familiar: the 2025 remix of themes previously tested by People’s Power, Alt-Info, and the neutrality lobby of the Alliance of Patriots. The party’s leadership, particularly the controversial “rights defender” Nana Kakabadze, has gravitated around Georgian Dream’s patron, Bidzina Ivanishvili, since the early days of his oligarchic seclusion.

In February, Georgian prosecutors opened a “sabotage” probe at this group’s request, eventually leading to the freezing of several Georgian NGOs’ and solidarity funds’ accounts. Now, while the United Neutral Georgia is increasingly pushing for a referendum on EU membership, it is also preparing to take the next step: they are forming a political party, just as GD moves to outlaw, exhaust, or fragment its real opponents.

Bitter Ends

While it may be tempting for radical groups to operate under the ruling party’s patronage, such alliances more often prove a curse than a blessing. Georgian March faded from the scene, and Levan Vasadze, too, vanished from public view, citing health issues, only regaining a short spotlight recently after being sanctioned by the U.K. for supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Alliance of Patriots and Alt-Info, once feared as formidable far-right forces with genuine grassroots appeal, have tasted the same bitter medicine. Their leaders now increasingly denounce Georgian Dream’s repressive policies and, in an unlikely twist, even voice sympathy for their former sworn enemies from the liberal camp, who likewise fell victim to the ruling party’s anti-democratic moves.

As for DIY forces, such as People’s Power and United Neutral Georgia, they likely have less to fear, as – unlike their predecessors – they appear too politically emasciated ever to rival the Georgian Dream. But they, too, must also beware, as the governing party has begun ruthlessly cracking down on its former associates. Before they face a similar end, however, these groups still have a clear purpose to serve.

Seen over time, the method of GD handling its frienemies from the ultra-right is relatively consistent. Radical parties are embraced, formed, and dissolved around GD to fulfill several standard tasks.

• Trial balloon: a satellite force says the unthinkable – foreign agents, neutrality, anti-Pride threats, expanding the political window into the range of previously impossible.
• Calibration: GD watches public, Western, and opposition reaction; if the idea flies, it slowly officially adopts it.
• Scarecrow effect: GD presents itself as the only barrier to the truly unhinged actors it has been quietly feeding.
• Retirement or recycling: when a group outlives its usefulness, it is cut down, absorbed, or replaced.

This is why the new party matters. It is not that United Neutral Georgia will win elections or make a significant mark; It is that GD keeps needing something scarier than thou on the right to make its own increasingly dictatorial policies look mild in comparison. In the post-ban political environment, the United Neutral Georgia is warming the political spot where GD may want to move next.