Kobakhidze says EU threats to revoke visa-free status part of ‘global war party’ and ‘deep state’ conspiracy

In a lengthy, conspiracy theory-filled public statement on Friday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze spoke about the new sanctions package against Russia and possibility of EU halting its visa-free regime with Georgia. He once again referred to Georgian Dream conspiracy theories about the so-called ‘deep state’ and the ‘global war party’ secretly controlling the world, along with new twists, adding that the forces are trying to ‘destroy both Europe and Russia at the same time’.

Before reading out the statement, Kobakhidze said he was presenting the Georgian Dream party as a leader and was presenting the party’s position. Quickly, he launched into familiar conspiracy theory-tinged rhetoric Georgian Dream has used since its electoral campaign in 2024, that the global war party wants to push Georgia to open a second front by attacking Russia, and to achieve this goal, is using EU structures and bureaucracy to threaten Georgia.

The global war party and deep state are two nebulous terms that regularly fit into Georgian Dream’s conspiracy theories, and refer to shadowy forces that are trying to overthrow the Georgian government and push it into war.

Kobakhidze accused the previous US administration of imposing unjust sanctions against the Georgian Dream billionaire founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili for ‘not opening the second front’.

At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kobakhidze said that Georgia did everything to politically support Ukraine, including joining ‘hundreds of resolutions’, co-sponsoring investigation of war crimes, sheltering Ukrainian refugees, sending humanitarian aid, and other activities.

‘So we opened the discussion and asked a rhetorical question — what did Georgia do [to deserve this blackmail]? The answer to this question was found by our political team and Georgian society very soon — we did not engage in war, we did not open the second front in our country against Russia, which is why the former [US] administration, instructed by the global war party, also known as the deep state, decided to punish Georgia’, he said.

Two days before the briefing, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of Georgian Dream’s parliamentary faction, claimed that the demand to push Georgia into war was not on the agenda anymore.

‘It seems this issue is not on the agenda today. No one tells us to start a war, I am honestly telling you, compared to the period from a few years ago, it is different’, Mdinaradze said at the time.

Just days later, the party statement said the opposite, as Kobakhidze alleged the demand to push Georgia to join in the war between Russia and Ukraine has not weakened, but has rather become more intense.

Continuing on, Kobakhidze said the warmongering pressure came not just from the administration of former President Joe Biden, but also today through European bureaucracy.

‘It is no longer a secret that the global war party has European bureaucracy in full coordination and is wildly blackmailing our country’, he said.

Kobakhidze added that the goal is the same — to get rid of the Georgian Dream government which will ‘not be useful’ to open a second front — and then install ‘their agents’.

He said the recent resolutions about Georgia in the European Parliament and the threat of possibly halting the EU’s visa-free regime with Georgia serve the same goal.

‘The logical question arises — what can a law on transparency or the protection of family values have in common with visa liberalisation? Obviously, these two issues have nothing to do with each other, but the eurobureaucracy coordinated by the global war party is trying to find some kind of basis for the blackmail and pressure it is carrying out’.

‘The desire to open a second front is so great that the global war party has reorganised the entire European bureaucracy into attack mode on Georgia, and is considering the abolition of visa-free travel as the last trump card left in their hands’, he continued.

Continuing on, Kobakhidze continued further with the conspiracy that the global war party is doing everything to ‘place the burden of the Ukrainian issue entirely on Europe’s shoulders’ and to destroy Europe and Russia altogether, as the leadership of EU member states currently want to prolong the war.

‘The maximum armament of Ukraine, the supply of long-range weapons, the tightening of sanctions against Russia, the statements of retired generals that they are preparing for war with Russia in the near future — all this clearly demonstrates the plan of the global war party, to continue and intensify the Russian–Ukrainian war at the expense of Europe, the processes that are related to the weakening of Europe on the one hand and Russia on the other, of course, these processes will end with such an outcome’, he said.

Kobakhidze then highlighted the decision to increase funding for military spending in the EU, which he said ‘would further aggravate the economic situation and social background of the EU’ and turn European countries into militarised states.

In conclusion, Kobakhidze spoke about the new US administration of President Donald Trump, claiming that Washington’s attitude towards Georgia has radically changed. Echoing past comments, he said Georgian Dream wishes success in Trump’s ‘fight against the deep state’.

‘But we have a reasonable doubt — it is possible this fight may result in the defeat of the deep state, but rather its rebranding. Its goal is to push the US aside and fully engage Europe in the Russia–Ukraine war and finally destroy Europe and Russia altogether’, he said.

He added that so far, the new administration has done nothing to ‘correct’ Biden’s mistakes in regards to Georgia, and mentioned that the ‘unjust sanctions’ remain in place.

After delivering the statement, Kobakhidze responded to several questions from journalists. When asked about the possible consequences of halting the visa-free regime with the EU, he responded that it was only a ‘technical issue’.

‘You either have to stand in queue [for visas] or not’, he said. ‘A lot of Georgians go to EU member countries to receive different types of medical treatment, without a visa-free regime, this will become harder for them’.

‘If you want to receive high-quality medical care in a specific direction, there are other countries, there are many countries. This is a far-fetched story, it is speculation [that the visa-free status will be removed’.

Touching on demands in the recently adopted EU Parliament resolution about Georgia and the law on family values, Irakli Kobakhidze compared Georgian Dream to the 15th century Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy.

‘Giordano Bruno was burned because he proved that the Earth rotates. Today, people are burned because they believe that a man is a man and a woman is a woman. The European bureaucracy tells us that because of this, our visa liberalisation should be abolished and our visa liberalisation should be burned’, he added.