Georgia PM on Finnish FM : we didn’t meet because she became the 51st Akatsuki’

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said his government had “declined” to meet with Finland’s Foreign Minister because, in his words, she “joined the Akatsuki” - a term the ruling party now uses pejoratively to describe opposition figures and Western critics.

“We didn’t meet with the Finnish Foreign Minister [this month] because she became the 51st Akatsuki at an [anti-government] rally [in central Tbilisi] of 50 Akatsukis,” Kobakhidze told reporters. “She said she was not the Foreign Minister of Finland, but an Akatsuki. That’s what she told us, and we couldn’t meet with her - there’s no point in negotiating with an Akatsuki. We wanted to talk to Finland’s Foreign Minister, but ended up with an Akatsuki instead.”

In recent months, the Georgian government and members of the ruling Georgian Dream party have used the word “Akatsuki” - borrowed from the Japanese anime Naruto, where it refers to a secretive and villainous organization - as a derogatory political label for domestic opposition, civil activists, and foreign officials critical of the government’s actions.