GD Slams UK Sanctions, Appeals to U.S. as Political Council Meets with Ivanishvili Present

2026-02-27 - 15:05

The ruling Georgian Dream party decried the UK’s sanctioning of two pro-government channels and again appealed to the U.S. to change its attitude towards Tbilisi in a conspiracy-filled statement made after the February 27 political council meeting attended by the party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili. The statement, read out by GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, comes as the two channels – Imedi TV and POSTV – face chaos and uncertainty following London’s February 24 decision to impose sanctions for spreading “deliberately misleading information” about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Aside from Kobakhidze and Ivanishvili, the party’s honorary chairman who rarely appears in public, the political council’s meeting was attended by senior GD lawmakers and government officials, including parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili and Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili. Lashing Out at UK, ‘Agentura’ The statement starts by slamming the United Kingdom over sanctioning the channels while slamming what it called “agentura” – a Soviet-era term to denote a network of spies – for allegedly serving “external forces. “ The UK sanctions “constitute an unprecedented example of an open attack on free media,” the GD council said, calling the fact “tragic” and “comical” given “the official reason that was used as the pretext for imposing the sanctions.” The party said the real motive “was to give the discredited, half-dead opposition a slight chance to maintain a pulse,” citing the agenda of “foreign ill-wishers.” According to the statement, Georgian Dream is confronted by “the radical opposition in the service of external forces, a foreign agentura that has no regard for the legitimacy granted by the Georgian people and is concerned with nothing other than failing to carry out the instructions of its foreign patrons.” “It is logical that they expect salvation only from their foreign patrons, especially when it is clear that they are not merely struggling but are on the verge of political extinction,” the party said. The party went on to argue that the sanctions would not affect the outlets’ work. “No sanction can force a national broadcaster to renounce telling the truth and informing Georgian society,” it said. “No one in Georgia can silence the truthful word, because just as water inevitably finds its course, so too will the truth always find its way.” In the statement, the party slammed the opposition for welcoming the sanctions against Imedi and POSTV. “The public has seen that as soon as the radical opposition received one-time assistance from foreign patrons in the form of sanctions against Imedi and POSTV, they immediately began, through a unified message box, to assert the absurd claim that the government and free Georgian media were on the verge of collapse,” GD said, calling it “another lustration” that “in their view, Georgia’s fate should be decided not by the Georgian people but by external forces.” The statement goes on to define “external force”: By external force “is meant a force that gives an instruction to the local agentura while at the same time convincing them that, now and also in the future, it will help them come to power if they unconditionally carry out those instructions.” The statement goes on: “Whether we call these forces the Deep State, the Global War Party, or oligarchic families, the fact is that it is precisely such an informal force that has entrenched itself today within the European bureaucracy. Appealing to United States The second part of the statement focuses on the United States, again expressing hope for the change of heart from Washington and calling the current attitude “illogical.” The statement says that “a particular foreign agent,” without disclosing the identity, called on other “radicals” to unite and “to offer this union to the West – more specifically, to the United States of America” as Georgian Dream’s political alternative “against the backdrop of British sanctions” and that the [“agent”] “added that the party Lelo, together with its leaders, will inevitably join the coalition they present to Washington.” The statement goes: “This statement by the agentura is of interest to us against the background that the current U.S. administration has openly declared a foreign policy course that foresees non-interference in the internal political affairs of foreign countries.” “By President Trump’s order, the revolution-funding foundations, including USAID and NED, were demonstratively shut down, and they were closed in a way that openly exposed their covert interferences in the political life of foreign countries, in staging revolutions, and in violently changing governments against the will of the people,” GD’s political council said, adding: “Not a week passes after the new administration’s electoral victory without political leaders, including Vance, Rubio, Gabbard, and others, explicitly noting that the U.S. no longer intends to interfere in the political processes of other countries.” The statement then says that “it raises additional question marks” that “agentura called opposition” – while “very well aware who is their patron outside the country” – still offers their “services” to the U.S. “despite their [U.S. administration’s] stated policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of foreign countries.” In the statement, the GD political council went on to echo the ruling party’s conspiratorial narratives, arguing the recent events, including the UK sanctions, have once again convinced them “that freeing the European bureaucracy from informal influence will be very difficult in the short or even medium term.” The statement then says: “As for the U.S., we continue to maintain hope that the fight declared by Donald Trump against the so-called Deep State will conclude with his victory. The best proof of this will be a change in the American administration’s attitude toward Georgia.” The GD further said that “in light of shared values, the U.S.’s current distanced stance toward Georgia is illogical and raises multiple questions,” noting: “A shift in its approach toward Georgia would confirm that the declared fight against the Deep State is not a façade or an attempt at rebranding informal forces, but is sincere and real.” “We continue to maintain an optimistic expectation,” the party said. Also Read: 27/02/2026 – After UK Sanctions, Imedi TV Plans to Launch Its Own Bank 26/02/2026 – British Ambassador Summoned to Foreign Ministry Over Imedi, POSTV Sanctions 26/02/2026 – Board Members Rush to Leave Imedi as UK-Sanctioned Broadcasters Face Chaos 25/02/2026 – Georgian Dream Backs UK-Sanctioned Channels Amid Uncertainty Over Impact 07/10/2025 – Kobakhidze Offers Reset With West, Threatens to End Rustaveli Protests