Georgian Dream Majority Leader Says All Alleged ‘Foreign Agents’ Must Be Identified, Regardless of Their Political Influence

Georgia’s parliamentary majority leader, Irakli Kirtskhalia, has said authorities have a responsibility to identify everyone he describes as a “foreign agent”, regardless of their political influence or public standing.

Speaking on Imedi LIVE, Kirtskhalia accused individuals associated with opposition parties, non-governmental organisations and television broadcasters of operating on behalf of foreign interests.

“It is our duty to identify every single one of them. We understand that some of them may barely have a pulse, but that does not matter. They are still agents,” Kirtskhalia said.

“An agent sits in a television studio and speaks to us on behalf of a political party. An agent addresses me in the name of a political party through a television channel belonging to some kind of sect funded by their own NGO,” he added.

The parliamentary majority leader also addressed the possibility of pardons for individuals detained in connection with the events of October 4, discussing the reactions of their families and the circumstances under which clemency could be granted.

Kirtskhalia said the ruling Georgian Dream party had maintained what he described as a humanitarian approach since coming to power in 2012, suggesting that individuals who acknowledged wrongdoing and sought forgiveness could be granted clemency.

“Our approach since 2012 has been based on humanity. If you reflect on your actions, understand and acknowledge before the state and society that you have committed an offence, whether knowingly or unknowingly, and ask for forgiveness and a pardon, you will certainly receive one,” he said.

He also referred to the emotional consequences of imprisonment for detainees and their families, accusing opposition figures of abandoning people who had participated in what he described as an attempted revolutionary scenario.

“There are families where a child leaves their father in prison, or where a father and mother leave their child behind bars. I cannot even imagine what a person sitting in prison must feel,” Kirtskhalia said.

“Many of them are people whom these unpatriotic agents abandoned after involving them in a baseless, deceptive scenario a supposedly revolutionary plot they were organising,” he added.

Kirtskhalia’s remarks come amid continued political tensions in Georgia over the ruling party’s efforts to challenge opposition groups and its accusations of foreign interference in domestic politics.