Moldovan parliamentary delegation including former controversial former President Igor Dodon visits Georgia

A Moldovan parliamentary delegation, led by a pro-Russian lawmaker Bogdan (Bogdat) Țîrdea, arrived in Tbilisi. The publicly available list of attendees also includes former Moldovan President Igor Dodon, but none of the group members represent Moldova’s ruling party, whose founder, incumbent President Maia Sandu, has a tense relationship with the Georgian government.

According to Dodon, who is a leader of the opposition Party of Socialists (PSRM) — widely perceived as pro-Russian — the working visit took place at the invitation of the Georgian side, under the auspices of the Moldovan Parliament’s friendship group with Georgia.

He noted in a Facebook post on Wednesday that ‘the aim of the visit is to strengthen cooperation between the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, as well as to explore new opportunities for collaboration in areas of mutual interest, including at the parliamentary level’.

In a later post on Thursday, Dodon shared pictures of a meeting in Georgian Parliament, calling it a ‘historical event’. The photos showed the ruling Georgian Dream party MP Isko Daseni, who leads the Georgian Parliament’s friendship group with the Moldovan Parliament, as well as the Georgian Dream MPs Mariam Lashkhi and Gia Benashvili.

‘Today, in Tbilisi, the first meeting of interparliamentary friendship groups from Moldova and Georgia took place’, Dodon wrote, adding that the topics discussed included ‘Georgia's valuable experience in defending national interests, ensuring economic resilience, and preserving traditional values’.

Later, the Georgian Parliament also released information about the meeting. The press release stated that ‘the parties discussed existing relations between the two countries and the prospects for deepening cooperation between the parliaments of Georgia and Moldova, including within the framework of friendship groups’.

‘I am confident that today’s meeting will contribute to strengthening relations between the two countries’, Daseni said, as quoted by the Georgian Parliament’s press service.

Dodon served as the President of Moldova from 2016 to 2020. In 2022, Dodon was detained and placed under house arrest for several months on corruption and treason charges. He has dismissed the allegations as being politically motivated.

Țîrdea, who leads both the delegation and the friendship group with Georgia, is a fellow party member of Dodon. According to the latter, the delegation also includes another PSRM member, Petru Burduja, as well as the Democracy at Home (PPDA) party leader Vasile Costiuc and Olga Ursu, a member of the Alternative Bloc.

According to Dodon, the planned activities during the visit include a meeting with Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, as well as with representatives of all parliamentary factions.

The friendship group with Georgia, whose membership list is published on the Moldovan Parliament’s website, includes not only opposition lawmakers but also members of the ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), founded in 2016 by Sandu. The party is a vocal supporter of Moldova’s European integration.

OC Media asked the press service of the Georgian Parliament whether only opposition MPs had been invited by the Georgian side or if invitations had also been sent to members of PAS. No response had been received at the time of publication.

The visit was commented on on social media by Valeriu Pașa, chairman of the Moldovan think tank Watchdog.md, who shared a fragment of the visit’s agenda showing the names of the delegation members.

‘What a shame and complete disappointment is how Georgia has fallen under the authoritarian rule of Russian oligarch Ivanishvili!’ He wrote, referring to the ruling Georgian Dream party founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom critics have repeatedly accused of distancing Georgia from its Western partners and pulling it closer to Russia.

In Pașa’s words, ‘in order to imitate relations with Moldova’, Georgian authorities have invited a delegation of what he called ‘Russian [conservatives] from the Moldovan Parliament’.

‘It is headed by the perhaps most toxic Kremlin's propagandist in Moldova — Bogdat Țîrdea. [A] majority of the members — overtly pro-Russian socialists, others — Kremlin [conservatives] pretending to be pro-European’, he added.

Amid Georgia’s democratic backsliding, Sandu has on several occasions voiced criticism of the local authorities and expressed support for the anti-government movement, causing irritation among the ruling party and its allies.

Georgian Dream has been often accused by critics, both at home and abroad, of distancing Georgia from the Euro-Atlantic space. The party denies the claims and insists that it is safeguarding the country’s sovereignty.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Georgian Dream has frequently claimed that external powers are trying to drag Georgia into the war against Russia and open a second front in the country, presenting itself as the guarantor against such a scenario.