Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze slammed the author of the recently published Moscow Mechanism report, accusing her of “political bias” in a statement that largely defended the ruling party against criticism of contested elections, controversial legislation targeting civil society and LGBT rights, and police dispersals of protests, among others.
Kobakhidze’s March 16 statement follows the March 12 publication of a critical report under the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism, a human rights monitoring tool invoked by 24 participating states on January 29 to launch an expert mission examining the deteriorating human rights situation in Georgia. The report noted “marked democratic backsliding” since spring 2024 and recommended, among other measures, the immediate release of “all prisoners held for political reasons” and the repeal of several restrictive laws.
“The document was prepared at the behest of malign, narrow political interests that underpinned the creation of the so-called Moscow Mechanism against Georgia,” Kobakhidze said at the start of his briefing at the government administration. He accused the report’s rapporteur, Patrycja Grzebyk, of concealing a “conflict of interest” that he said was reflected in her “direct connection” with the Polish government.
“Accordingly, it is not surprising that the report fails to meet even minimum standards of objectivity and therefore cannot reflect an objective analysis of events unfolding in Georgia,” he said.
“The author herself notes that, due to time constraints, the document lacks depth. This is perhaps the only general conclusion in the report with which we can fully agree,” Kobakhidze further said, adding that “the author of the report could not even determine whether our country is called the ‘Republic of Georgia’ or simply ‘Georgia.’”
He then singled out eight topics raised in the report and criticized each of them.
First, he addressed the elections, saying the author of the recent report “forgot” the conclusion of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission on Georgia’s 2024 parliamentary elections, which he said, “called the vote competitive and Georgian Dream the elected government.” He said the author also “forgot” to mention the “radical opposition,” which, he said, “attempted to undermine Georgia’s constitutional order and democratic system” by refusing to take up parliamentary seats.
“You will find no criticism whatsoever of these anti-state and anti-democratic actions by the opposition,” Kobakhidze said, further insisting that “even the author of the Moscow Mechanism report could not question the democratic nature of the 2024 and 2025 elections.”
Second, he criticized the report’s calls to repeal or fundamentally review what he called the “transparency legislation,” referring to the laws curbing civil society organizations. Kobakhidze said that the rapporteur “completely ignored” what he described as “five attempts” to overthrow the government over the course of four years, in which, he added, “foreign-funded so-called NGOs were actively involved.” He said that the principle of non-interference in a foreign country’s internal affairs was “systematically, openly and grossly violated” with regard to Georgia.
“It should have been easy for the author of the report to realize that the legitimate aim of a law adopted by the Georgian Parliament is to protect Georgia’s state sovereignty and the country’s democratic system in the future from such blatant foreign interference,” he said, “But she refrained from reflecting this simple conclusion in the report.” He further said the report “presents no valuable critical remarks regarding the transparency legislation.”
Third, Irakli Kobakhidze addressed the “Law on Family Values and Protection of Minors,” the anti-LGBT legislation that Georgian Dream says was adopted to protect children from “LGBT propaganda.”
Saying the author calls for the repeal of the law, Kobakhidze specified that the report “negatively assesses norms restricting the promotion of same-sex relationships and opposing gender transition. It also rejects the simple truth that a woman is a woman and a man is a man, and demands that the gender entry in identity documents be easily changed according to the individual’s preference.” He added, “That such approaches cannot have much value for Georgian society should presumably be indisputable.”
Fourth, he addressed the disproportionate use of police force against protesters. Kobakhidze insisted that the rapporteur “failed again to hold an objective position” by not noting in the report, as he said, that it was “in the interests of the organizers of violence and abusers to accuse law enforcement of violence.”
While acknowledging that “such incidents” of exceeding power by police had indeed occurred during protests, Kobakhidze said the Georgian Dream government “immediately condemned” such actions and “drew practical conclusions,” adding that during the October 4 election-day unrest in Tbilisi, “nobody suffered even minor harm” as a result of dispersal.
Fifth, Kobakhidze addressed the report’s criticism of Georgian Dream’s accusations against the EU and other Western ambassadors. “In this case too, the author of the report cannot hide her bias and speaks one-sidedly about the government’s rhetoric, while the government’s statements are merely a response to the political storm waged by the radical opposition, so-called NGOs, and certain ambassadors against the Georgian people and their elected government,” he said.
Sixth, Kobakhidze said the rapporteur is “particularly worried” by the ruling party’s actions to ban certain opposition parties, as well as the criminal cases launched against certain opposition politicians accused of sabotage. “The author of the report calls the constitutional appeal arbitrary, which is itslef smile-inducing, because by its nature an appeal cannot be arbitrary,” Kobakhidze said, adding, “The author, who is, by the way laywer, seems to forget that the rule of law is the foundation of a legal state, and no foreign expert can limit it.”
Seventh, he addressed the report’s findings on legislative amendments concerning broadcasters. “In this context, it is worth recalling the ironic fact that one of the initiators of the so-called Moscow Mechanism against Georgia is the United Kingdom, which not long ago attempted to shut down and silence two leading television channels in Georgia,” he said, referring to the UK’s sanctions on Imedi TV and POSTV, two major pro-government channels that were sanctioned for spreading “Russian disinformation.”
Kobakhidze also mentioned the report’s criticism of the legislative amendments that largely restricted protests, saying, “Before the adoption of relevant legislation, some 150 political activists had blocked the capital’s central avenue to traffic for almost a year,” and adding that criticizing such laws is a “clear sign” of the author’s “political bias.”
For the final, eighth point, Kobakhidze stressed that the report also addressed reforms of the general and higher education systems, which are widely regarded as controversial. “That space was even found in the report is an absolutely comical development, especially since, even in such a politically biased report, the author could not criticize the reform in any way,” he said.
Kobakhidze then largely defended every point criticized in the report, including the contested elections, controversial legislation targeting civil society organizations and LGBT rights, and police dispersals of protests.
“Georgia needs transparency, not ambiguity. Georgia needs the protection of family values and the interests of minors, not total LGBT propaganda. Georgia needs peace and stability, not constant chaos and disorder. Georgia needs objective media, not lies and hatred. Georgia needs democratic governance of the majority, not minority violence over the majority. Georgia needs the rule of law in state governance, not crime in politics. Georgia needs not what the authors of the Moscow Mechanism report demand, but what the Georgian people supported in the 2024 parliamentary elections,” Kobakhidze said in the concluding remarks, “This is peace, sovereignty, and progress for our country. The Georgian government acts and will continue to act in accordance with the will of the Georgian people.”
Following the report’s publication, Tbilisi rejected its findings and recommendations, with Georgia’s permanent representative to the OSCE saying the government “vigorously rejects” its conclusions. In his remarks on March 14, Kobakhidze also dismissed the report as “pre-written” and “entirely filled with falsehoods,” accusing its author, Patrycja Grzebyk, of concealing a conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, an opposition alliance described the report as “an extremely severe verdict against Ivanishvili’s Russian regime,” saying it confirms systemic human rights violations. UNM leader Tina Bokuchava, speaking on behalf of the alliance, said it is now the opposition’s duty to “remove Ivanishvili peacefully and reclaim our country.”
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