Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze claimed that “Deep State” and its “agents” in Georgia seek to undermine Russian tourism in the country, including by artificially stoking “Russophobia,” in remarks made at the August 12 briefing during which he also warned against inciting “enmity between peoples.”
During the briefing, Kobakhidze repeatedly referred to “Deep State” and “Global War Party” conspiracy theories that claim informal oligarchic rule in the West, and which the Georgian ruling party has regularly invoked to accuse the West of trying to drag Georgia into the war with Russia, including by opening a second front in the Ukraine war. He also reiterated his recent claims that the government critics and opposition, which he calls “Georgian agentura” [a term denoting a spy network], became “Russophobic” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine while ignoring the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia.
Kobakhidze then said that “the public must know what the ‘Deep State’s’ plan to artificially stoke Russophobia in Georgia using its agentura is aimed at,” warning that Georgia, the Georgian people, and the country’s sovereignty face “a qualitatively new phase of a storm” unfolding simultaneously in several directions.
The GD prime minister listed as part of the “deliberate storm,” which he argued is coordinated by the “Deep State,” several recent controversies and allegations, including recent Abkhazia war remarks by United National Movement member Giorgi Baramidze, as well as an alleged social media campaign that Georgian security services claimed is directed towards portraying Georgia as unfavorable for Russian tourists.
“The numerous incidents that have taken place recently are part of a deliberate storm, including the branding of Georgian hero servicemen as war criminals by local agents of the ‘Deep State’ and the dissemination of the absurd lie that, during the conflict in Abkhazia, Georgians did not take prisoners and shot them; artificially orchestrated anti-Russian campaigns at Georgia’s seaside resorts; as well as, as I noted several days ago, false reports circulating on social media, in which people with nonexistent names, surnames and professions speak about a negative environment in Georgia for Russian tourists,” Kobakhidze argued.
He further claimed that the “new plan” of the “Deep State” foresees preventing the arrival of Russian tourists in Georgia, to end up with Russian authorities “cutting all economic ties” with Georgia “as if for the Russophobic attitudes in Georgia.”
“The aim of all this, as well as of opening a second front and joining the sanctions imposed on Russia, is to bring down Georgia’s economy, stoke a strife between nations, and bring the processes to the military conflict, which, in our case, leads to the extreme weakening of Georgia and the threat of its destruction,” Kobakhidze said.
He then drew attention to “numerous mixed families” living in Georgia and Russia, “large Georgian diaspora” living in Russia, and “many people of Russian origin” living in Georgia.
“Therefore, whatever the ‘Deep State’s’ plan may be, we must not allow political disagreements, political mistakes made in the past, or the ‘Global War Party’s plan to drag Georgia into war and open a second front with Russia to become a basis for enmity between peoples, because maintaining relations between societies and their peaceful coexistence are far more important than any political conjuncture or the concrete plans of informal oligarchic forces toward particular states,” Kobakhidze noted.
Russians are known to make up the largest tourist group in Georgia, with visitors from Russia accounting for 25.1% (328,900) of all visitors, or nearly one in every four visitors, in the second quarter of 2026.
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