It is logical that if someone were to develop a radical anti-Russian sentiment, it should have happened not in 2022, but after 2008. A logical question arises - why did they become Russophobes now and not when it came to Georgia. They do not even formally recognize Georgia as their homeland, is Ukraine their homeland? - Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze writes in a post published on the social network, which concerns the current and previous government's attitudes towards Russia.

As Kobakhidze notes, "the rhetoric of foreign agents towards Russia has never been so harsh and negative either before the 2008 war or after the August war."

“In 2022, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, one specific approach emerged in the oppositional, pseudo-liberal minority of our society, which requires separate discussion.

As you know, as a result of the crime committed by the National Movement regime against its own state and people, Russia occupied 20 percent of the territory of Georgia. 18 years have passed since the August 2008 war, however, its heaviest traces still remain on our country and the lives of tens of thousands of Georgians. As a result of Russian military aggression, 412 people died and 2,232 were injured; 30,000 of our fellow citizens were forced to leave their homeland; more than 120 Georgian settlements appeared behind the occupation line. We are obliged to our homeland and history to realize that these numbers are not just statistics, because behind them lies the most precious thing - lost lives, abandoned and destroyed villages, and betrayed national interests.

It is interesting that, against the backdrop of a tragedy of this scale, the August war did not become a sufficient basis for the National Movement regime and its followers to form a radical attitude towards Russia in 2008-2012. In fact, the opposite happened - after Russia occupied the territories of Georgia in 2008 and recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, the National Movement not only did not pursue a strict policy towards Russia, but soon after the end of the war, the regime leader met Russian citizens directly at the border and invited them to Georgia for tourist trips and business activities. During the same period, we saw the regime’s active efforts to deepen cultural and humanitarian ties with Russia, as well as the National Movement government’s encouragement of Russian capital involvement in various, including strategic, sectors of the Georgian economy, and a few years later, the unilateral abolition of the visa regime for Russian citizens.

We would like to remind you that neither the representatives of the National Movement regime nor their followers expressed any protest against this policy at that time. Moreover, we all remember how today’s main “Russophobes” – Elene Khoshtaria, Zurab Japaridze, Misha Mshvildadze and others – welcomed Russian tourists to Georgia, Russian money, which at that time “had no smell,” and the deepening of trade, economic and cultural ties with Russia. Let us remind you that all this is happening after Russia has already recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and diplomatic relations between the two countries have been severed.

The fact is that these political forces, their associated NGOs and other active followers, which have formed an externally controlled agency - a single radical force and have repeatedly proven that they are engaged only in pursuing the interests of external forces in Georgia, were not disturbed by the anti-Russian aggression in 2008-2012. The Georgian agents developed a radical anti-Russian sentiment only after Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time. It is obvious that the global war party needed the scale of the current conflict to involve Europe in the war and to incite Russophobia among the agents worldwide, including in Georgia, at the highest level.

To clarify once again, the rhetoric of foreign agencies towards Russia was not so harsh and negative either before the 2008 war or after the August war, that is, when it directly concerned their (formally at least) homeland, when the lives of hundreds of Georgian soldiers, policemen and civilians were sacrificed to the Russian occupation, when Giorgi Antsukhelidze was tortured to death, when we lost more than 120 Georgian villages, when tens of thousands of our fellow citizens became refugees, and when something happened that Russia had never even thought about before - the recognition of the so-called independence of the occupied territories of Georgia by Russia. The foreign agents declared Russia an implacable enemy only after it invaded Ukraine for the second time. If we were talking about Ukrainian citizens, of course, this would be completely understandable, but, it seems that they are more concerned about Ukraine than about Georgia, because they have received such a directive. It is a paradox, but the fact is that in their understanding, Russia became the real occupier of Georgia not after the occupation of the territories of Georgia, but of Ukraine.

Naturally, these emotions of theirs are also completely false, because they are devoid of any values, which they have repeatedly proven to this day. However, a logical question arises - why did they become Russophobes now and not when it came to Georgia. They do not even formally recognize Georgia as their homeland, and is Ukraine their homeland? It is logical that if someone had to form a radical anti-Russian sentiment, it should have happened not after 2022, but after 2008. The fact that their current Russophobia is false is confirmed by concrete facts. Without going too far, we all know that Russophobic politicians, NGOs, journalists, and activists have no reaction to the millions of Russian rubles transferred from the Russian state treasury to Elene Khoshtaria. I think the issue I am discussing now does not require additional explanation for the majority of the Georgian population. The vast majority of the population of our country is sincere patriot, which is clearly evident from their order to the government - to protect peace, state sovereignty, and national values ​​at any cost.

However, I believe that a question must be asked that society should discuss. We all know that both in the past and today, agents in Georgia operate in accordance with the instructions of external forces, and their homeland is not Georgia, but the “deep state.” Against this background, it is interesting why they were not instructed to be Russophobic when the most pressing reason for this existed, that is, after the August 2008 war, and why they were instructed to be Russophobic now, when the victim of Russian aggression is not their formal homeland, but another, even a friendly country. I think society will easily find a logical explanation for this illogicality,” Kobakhidze states.