PM Kobakhidze calls UNM ‘foreign agents’, vows legal response to alleged sabotage

Georgian Prime Minister and Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze has described the United National Movement (UNM) as a network of “foreign agents” and said the authorities would seek a legal response to what he called the party’s acts of sabotage.

Commenting on internal divisions within the UNM, Kobakhidze said the details of the dispute were insignificant because, in his view, the opposition force had been weakened by competition among its members for the approval of their foreign “patrons”.

“This is not even an opposition. It is an ordinary foreign agency network,” Kobakhidze said, claiming its members were competing to demonstrate their loyalty to those he described as their patrons.

Kobakhidze said political developments were moving in the right direction but argued that electoral defeats alone were not a sufficient response to the UNM.

“The main thing is that this treacherous and hostile force, which is hostile towards the Georgian people and the Georgian state, receives an appropriate response,” he said.

Kobakhidze said the UNM’s actions and alleged sabotage required a legal assessment and pledged that the government would “do its utmost” to ensure such a response.