Kakha Kaladze, the secretary general of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday praised “any patriots” who put the national interests “on the first place”, in comments on a rally in central Tbilisi on Sunday, where demonstrated slammed the country’s foreign partners for their “attempts to drag Georgia” into the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and campaigned against the country’s integration into foreign blocs. 

In his comments for the media, Kaladdze also rejected claims by opponents that the Georgian Dream authorities had backed the rally and sent public servants there from regions by transport. 

He claimed public servants had been observed at various rallies in the country over the years, noting “any public servant can rally during  non-working hours”. 

“I will say one thing - I want to thank all those individuals for whom peace is important, for whom our homeland stands on the initial place. I want to thank all those people who are imbued with patriotism, who are happy about the success of our country and its economic development”, Kaladze said. 

The rally was organized by Gia Gachechiladze, a pro-governmental TV and radio host and a former politician, and Zaza Papuashvili, a former MP of the ruling party. 

The organizers had slammed the country’s allies in their speeches for “interfering in internal issues”, demanded “legal assessments” of the previous United National Movement government, the prohibition of the LGBT “propaganda” by the law, a national-interests-based school curriculum and a “sovereign political and economic policy”. 

Vato Shakarishvili, one of the organizers of the rally", told the audience it was necessary to think about what Georgia needed more - "unrealistic plans and goals of joining some military union, or neutrality”.