Mayor Kaladze: Post-2008 order from former regime’s ‘patrons’ was to thaw relations with Russia at all costs

“Following the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war, the opposition’s narrative was shifted in line with directives from external forces,” stated Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze in response to a journalist’s question regarding the sudden turn in anti-Russian rhetoric among opposition figures.

He explained that anti-Russian rhetoric among representatives of the former regime did not intensify after the August 2008 war, but rather following the start of the conflict in Ukraine.

“After 2008, the instruction from the previous government’s ‘patrons’ was to do everything possible to warm relations with Russia. We lost territories, soldiers, and innocent civilians, yet we all remember the rhetoric of the Saakashvili administration toward Russia and their official correspondence. Georgian singers performed concerts in Russia. That was the command from their ‘patrons’ at the time, and that is how they were expected to behave.

However, once the Russia–Ukraine war broke out, the narrative was abruptly flipped. A different set of instructions came down from their ‘patrons’, and we are witnessing the results of that daily,” stated Kakha Kaladze.