UNM’s Levan Khabeishvili: Geopolitical pundits use fancy backdrops to avoid real work, claim Georgia’s fate lies in Brussels or ‘Ashgabat’

“Georgia has split into babblers, pseudo-experts, armchair oppositionists, and keyboard warriors on one side, and dissident, fighting activists on the other,” United National Movement (UNM) member Levan Khabeishvili wrote in a social media post.

According to Khabeishvili, nobody is talking about high fuel and food prices or low wages.

“Say whatever you want, but the fact remains: If Misha Saakashvili is out on the streets for 7 to 10 days, the Georgian people would secure an unconditional victory; even the last remaining ‘Georgian Dreamer’ is convinced of this. Before you start squawking, look deep inside yourselves; I think you know it’s true. Likewise, the only unconditionally unbroken, undefeated team of patriots is the United National Movement. Let someone contribute even one-hundredth of what UNM has against this ‘black plague’ before they denounce or criticise our party. My unconditional support, solidarity, and love go out to my teammates and comrades-in-arms. Even under these arduous conditions, they perform self-sacrificing, steadfast work to the absolute limit of their abilities—it is impossible not to see it!

Now, for something that needs to be seen and judged on an individual level. Many of you will see yourselves in this, so don’t take offence. I am trying to tell you the truth from a solitary cell.

Everyone has suddenly become a foreign policy expert, a geopolitics analyst, a specialist in international relations. As long as nobody demands action or real work from them, they will happily dissect what Merz said, what happened at the Macron–Le Pen meeting, what Trump told Kushner, or what shoe size some European official wears. Absolute gibberish! Pouty faces, books stacked in the background, hoodwinking and deceiving the public into believing that our fate is decided in Brussels or ‘Ashgabat’. You don’t even need to go into a TV studio anymore—just go live with a coffee, slip a blazer over a dressing gown, and off you go, holding forth on Maduro, Assad, or Putin.

I can’t even remember the last time anyone complained on air about fuel hitting 4 GEL. Some 1,996,116 people are in debt to banks, getting fleeced officially in the name of the law! They have taken out loans at 18–22%, and in some cases 30%! Meanwhile, 375,188 people officially cannot pay back those loans, yet I haven’t heard anyone unpack these topics either! Within two months, two 17-year-old kids were murdered, and people barely speak about it in passing. Food prices have supposedly dropped—yet nobody investigates that either! Hundreds of thousands of people toil endlessly for 400, 600, or 800 GEL, which isn’t even enough for food, yet nobody wastes time discussing it. The entire youth is being poisoned and left to die from illegal drugs—and all they manage is a quiet murmur. The gambling industry rakes in billions, plundering destitute, hopeless, desperate people—and I haven’t heard a peep about that either!

Instead: Trump to Kushner, Macron to Marta Kos, and so on. Everyone is an expert and an analyst. But what about actual work?! What about the people?! What are we doing?! When?! ‘Spring and autumn, the regime is shaken, we’re working on it now’—and then what?! Now they will turn up their noses and mumble, ‘That doesn’t concern us, alright mate.’ Yet their ambitions are immense! Sky-high! Don’t be offended, but you look utterly absurd.

And what’s happening on the ‘other side’ of Georgia?! The same! Over there, they analyse how Germany and France have collapsed and what collapse awaits the US; they have the same topics, just from a ‘different angle’. Over there too, the main goal is to avoid talking about, thinking about, or caring for the Georgian people, weeping instead for Danish democracy. I genuinely pity the campaigning television channels! They work selflessly, fight, and even have to invent the ‘politics’ themselves.

Meanwhile, the ‘talking heads’ sit on standby, waiting for something to happen on its own. They admire Ukraine’s self-sacrifice and fight for its country, but here they accommodate Partskhaladze and Ivanishvili. Given half a chance, they distance themselves from Baramidze while slurping cocoa.

Georgia has split into babblers, pseudo-experts, armchair oppositionists, and keyboard warriors on one side, and dissidents, fighting activists on the other. Until we move from chatter to action, we will keep whining on TV broadcasts. Everyone minus Bidzina! Courage, uniting around Georgia, and doing whatever we can—that is the way out! Fear must be overcome! If we do that, I won’t get on your nerves from in here either,” Khabeishvili wrote.