PM Kobakhidze accuses OSCE of joining efforts to replace Georgian government with ‘deep state’ agents

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused the OSCE of being drawn into a process aimed at changing Georgia's government and replacing it with what he described as agents loyal to the "deep state."

Speaking at a briefing at the Government Administration on Monday, Kobakhidze described a resolution adopted by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly several days earlier as "absurd."

"Like other European institutions operating under informal oligarchic influence, the OSCE has now been openly involved in a process aimed at changing the government in Georgia and replacing it with agents obedient to the 'deep state' through unfair and shameful accusations, sanctions, pressure and other instruments of blackmail," Kobakhidze said.

The prime minister argued that statements by US President Donald Trump and former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, as well as public remarks by other political leaders and analysts about informal oligarchic influence and corporate governance, removed any doubt about the existence and influence of what he called the "deep state."

Kobakhidze cited statements attributed to Trump and Truss about dismantling the "deep state" in the United States and Britain.

Against this background, Kobakhidze said it was logical that some European politicians had alleged that Brussels, European institutions and the governments of most EU member states were accountable not to their voters but to the "deep state."

He claimed that their policies were therefore entirely shaped by informal oligarchic interests.