Georgia’s ruling party official: Georgia would have ideal relations with Brussels only if it fully surrendered its sovereignty

Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream parliamentary faction, said on Wednesday that the European Union was asking Georgia to take steps that would come at the expense of its national self-respect.

In an interview with Rustavi 2 TV, Machavariani said Georgia would enjoy an ideal relationship with Brussels if it imposed sanctions on Russia, sent volunteer fighters to Ukraine with the Government’s official consent, and supplied weapons to Ukraine.

“Let me tell you what we would have had to do to enjoy an ideal relationship with Brussels and avoid the onset of blackmail, pressure, and the spread of disinformation: we would have had to openly condemn Russia, impose sanctions on it, send volunteer fighters to Ukraine with the Government’s official consent, and hand over our weaponry to Ukraine. In that case, we would have been guaranteed an ideal relationship with Brussels”, Machavariani claimed.

“But now, let us ask the Georgian people: would that have been the right decision for us to make? Naturally, it would have led to an escalation with Russia. Consequently, it would not have been the right decision”, he continued.

Machavariani stressed that, despite what he described as blackmail and pressure, the ruling Georgian Dream party had made the only pragmatic and statesmanlike decision available.

He added that the ruling team had demonstrated through its actions that it could not be forced to back down, reiterating Georgian Dream’s commitment to defending the country’s national interests.

The official also outlined what he described as the steps Georgia would need to take to restore close and friendly relations with Brussels.

“The second issue concerns what needs to be done to restore warm and friendly relations with Brussels. First, we would have to completely surrender our sovereignty to Brussels. They demand the right to appoint judges from abroad. They demand that NGOs funded by them participate directly in decision-making processes across all branches of government. They demand that we hand over full control of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to an opposition that acts as an agent of foreign interests. Furthermore, we would have to convince ourselves and the Georgian people that the protests organised for us from Brussels were peaceful. We are expected to believe that those who threw Molotov cocktails committed no crime and that these individuals, as we are told, were detained arbitrarily and are, in fact, political prisoners”, Machavariani said.

“This is despite the fact that we watched live on television as the Parliament and the police were stormed in 2024, and subsequently witnessed the storming of the Presidential Palace in 2025, also live. We are now expected to convince ourselves and the public that none of this actually happened and that, apparently, we have been living in a parallel reality. Furthermore, we must convince ourselves and the public that Georgia does not border the Black Sea and is not a participant in the Middle Corridor. We must also impose sanctions on Russia, repeal the anti-LGBT law, and promote LGBT propaganda. We must convince ourselves and the public that there are more than two genders and that a man can transition into a woman, and vice versa. Moreover, we must abolish the transparency law and once again allow dark money to circulate through Nino Lomjaria and Eka Gigauri. This is an incomplete list of the steps we would have to take to restore close and friendly relations with Brussels”, he continued.

Machavariani argued that all these steps would undermine Georgia’s national interests and infringe upon its sovereignty.

“If we were to believe such nonsense and convince our own people to believe it, we would lose our national self-respect. Consequently, these are steps that we certainly cannot and will not take”, he concluded.