“As for Rasa Juknevičienė specifically, this is a person who holds no interest for us whatsoever, someone distinguished primarily by her hostility toward our country, and someone who is, as a matter of fact, among the closest allies and associates of Mikheil Saakashvili and the United National Movement,” said MP Levan Machavariani, First Deputy Chair of the Georgian Dream parliamentary faction, speaking on GPB First Channel program “Topic of the Day.”
“We are well accustomed to the illogical and inconsistent actions of Euro-bureaucrats. Incidentally, regarding this particular report, we were fortunate enough to hear a good deal of sound reasoning and entirely correct commentary that Georgian Dream is engaged in strengthening sovereignty. That was an accurate assessment on the part of those members of the European Parliament. As for what MEP Juknevičienė proceeds to write now, we have absolutely no interest in it. I may not have even read it; perhaps it still states that Zourabichvili is the President of Georgia, as was the case in their previous resolution. The disparity between their documents and the actual reality is so immense that we simply do not care. ” It will neither worsen nor improve anything,” said Machavariani.
In his view, the matter is quite straightforward.
“Every grievance Georgian Dream has against certain Euro-bureaucrats has been echoed, point for point, by the current U.S. administration; first when JD Vance came to Munich a year ago, and then when they reflected those very same accusations in their official national security strategy document. Reaching an understanding with them is very difficult. We reaffirm that we are ready at any moment to go to Brussels, sit down, and work through every issue. On November 21, when such a meeting was scheduled to take place, it was disrupted under various pretexts, revealing their lack of genuine interest in a debate grounded in reasoned argument.
They must either accept that their proxy, the collective National Movement, will not seize power in Georgia, or confront the reality, sit down, and engage in dialogue with Georgian Dream — but as equals and partners, not as vassals. Until that genuinely changes in their minds, until they abandon any expectation of speaking to Georgia as a vassal, they will get absolutely nowhere. We, for our part, are ready at any moment to set everything aside and move forward in a spirit of partnership,” Machavariani said.
When the host, Tamta Sanikidze, asked whether Britain’s decision from yesterday damages the country’s reputation and, above all, the media outlets that became its targets, Machavariani was unequivocal: this is not a sanction, it is a direct attack on free speech and a free press.
“Why did they attack them? There are arguments listed as though these channels supposedly carry some Russian narrative. Let’s focus specifically on Imedi, which, if I’m not mistaken, holds the top ratings position in Georgia. It boasts an audience four times larger than that of the second-largest broadcaster, and approximately 40% of Georgian viewers trust it. So they’re claiming that Imedi is peddling some Russian narrative, aiding in some undermining of Ukraine’s sovereignty, and a thousand other absurdities.
Come on — you’ve been maximally critical, play devil’s advocate if you will, push back on me. I am saying: none of that is happening. They do not spend their time praising Vladimir Putin. They do not claim that Russia is not our occupier. They do not claim that Russia is not an aggressor against Ukraine. They simply refuse to lie, to serve the interests of these informal oligarchic networks. They will not lie and claim Ukraine is about to be fast-tracked into NATO. Nobody is fast-tracking it, and Imedi won’t pretend otherwise; it says plainly that the promises made to Ukraine are not being kept. That’s what they promised, isn’t it? They won’t lie and pretend that villages and cities haven’t, tragically, been reduced to rubble. They have been, haven’t they? They won’t lie and say that the frozen Russian assets, which Ukraine was also promised from day one of the war, we are talking hundreds of billions of dollars, will be transferred to Ukraine. They won’t pretend that’s happening, because the decision was made not to do it.
Now, if Imedi and PosTV were doing the opposite, telling viewers that Ukraine is defeating Russia, keeping our audience living inside the same fairy tale that the mainstream media of these informal oligarchic rulers fed to half the world for four years, then they’d be hanging medals around their necks, saying well done, keep up the good work. That’s what this is actually about. And whose image is really being damaged here? The image of those whose public broadcaster spun some fairy tale about poisoning Georgia’s population with ‘camite.’
Let’s set Georgia aside; we’re a small country, but we’re talking about the President of the United States, who has taken legal action over this and is contesting billions of dollars. The BBC apologised and acknowledged that disinformation had been spread about Donald Trump. Have they no shame?” Machavariani said.
He added that the Prime Minister had made an open-standing offer, after the State Security Service concluded its investigation, that any relevant international actor is welcome to come and review all materials in full.
“Any relevant international body with an interest in the investigation can come, and the State Security Service will provide them with absolutely everything. Why has no one taken up the offer? Because they know it’s a fairy tale. If some international investigative body were to come, examine the evidence, and confirm that the BBC had been peddling fiction, they would be cutting their own throats, and that’s the last thing they want,” Machavariani said.
Machavariani also responded to remarks made by a fellow guest from the opposition, MP Tata Khvedeliani, regarding their party leader Giorgi Gakharia’s business meetings in Munich.
“I was paying close attention; a representative of Gakharia’s party was present, and I make it a point never to let their lies pass unanswered, whether in parliament or in public, because I made them a promise: not a single lie gets through. They seem to think that being in opposition entitles them to say whatever they please. First of all, it is shameful how low this party has sunk. They are now claiming that Gakharia was in Munich, but publishing photos is populism. How exactly is it populism to share a photo from a business meeting? It is, in fact, an obligation to inform the public, and especially your own voters. They don’t back down, they say yes, he was there, but we don’t go in for populism; yet if you go to Facebook right now, Gakharia’s party page still has him there winking away just as he was five or six years ago. That’s the state they’re in,” Machavariani said.
