Unfortunately, our opposition turned disinformation into the main weapon of political struggle. Such a statement the Chairman of the Parliament made at the plenary session, while presenting the activity report 2023.

“It is a sad reality that the Government and our society had to fight against disinformation alone. In good cases, they remained silent, and in some cases, non-governmental organizations themselves participated in creating and spreading disinformation, which should, as a rule, evaluate the events from a neutral position.

It is a pity that in the Georgian reality, several such organizations often compete and even surpass the opposition in the concerted dissemination of disinformation. Part of the non-governmental sector, which should represent the interests of society, practically became an ally of radical politicians.

Since radicalism is foreign and unacceptable to Georgian culture, the actions of radical politicians and their allied organizations cannot have the effect that they sometimes have in mind. People don’t listen to the radicals.

Disinformation by radical parties and organizations only becomes effective when some of our strategic partners become unwitting participants in the disinformation campaign. The best example of this was last year’s March rallies and campaign, which was directed against our intention to make transparent the funds received from abroad in Georgia.

The most shameful page of disinformation, which the opposition wrote in the recent history of Georgia, is related to ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. His just imprisonment and the period of serving his sentence in the clinic were full of direct and unsubstantiated rumours. The opposition claimed that Saakashvili was poisoned and was on the verge of death. When this primitive lie didn’t work, Saakashvili quickly forgot the myth of his illness and, having recovered, plunged directly into the vortex of radicalization.

Later, through the American registry of foreign agents, it was revealed and the whole country saw that millions of dollars paid to lobbyists stood and stand behind critical resolutions of the European Parliament, some politicians, articles and interviews published in the world press and television. Once again, Saakashvili’s disinformation was unfortunately accompanied by the support of a part of the non-governmental sector and some foreign actors.

The lie was soon exposed, everyone saw clearly where the truth was. However, unfortunately, many inside and outside the country still have a negative feeling, perception, impression that the government is doing something wrong with Saakashvili.

These negative perceptions are the result of misinformation, as was the case with the alleged election fraud and the alleged circumvention of sanctions. In this and other cases, together with the state, Georgian justice becomes the target of attack. When they wanted to discredit Georgian justice, they used such cases as evidence”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.