GD Chair Claims UNM More Harmful Than Russia-Friendly Alt-Right

Ruling Georgian Dream party chair, MP Irakli Kobakhidze, argued today that the United National Movement, the largest opposition party “causes a hundred times more damage to the state than Alt-Info can.”

Alt-Info is a notorious Russia-aligned anti-liberal group, which operates a namesake TV network and a freshly-founded far-right party titled “the Conservative Movement.”

MP Kobakhidze argued the case of the UNM is “more severe” than that of Alt-Info, since the former “participates in elections, reaches certain success, [and] it has more influential media resources.”

The ruling party chair’s remarks came as reporters asked for his stance on the pro-Russian group, but he was quick to divert the conversation to GD’s arch-rival, UNM.

“We have pro-Russian parties, unfortunately, in the parliament as well,” MP Kobakhidze said, supposedly referring to the United National Movement.

MP Kobakhidze insisted that if the legal framework allowed to, the GD could take action.
But “the unfortunate reality is that it is often difficult to respond” to such cases, he said.

“The same goes for TV networks,” the governing party chair continued. “There are several TV networks in Georgia that carry out propaganda of aggression, hate, and polarization, and here too, unfortunately, the legislation is powerless,” Kobakhidze alluded to government-critical Mtavari Arkhi TV, Formula TV and TV Pirveli.

”I think they are financed from Russia too,” he added.

As Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine has entered the second month, calls continue in Georgia for the GD government to crack down on both, Alt-Info’s network and party, which met resistance across the countryside recently as they sought to open regional offices.

Meanwhile, in a puzzling take Georgia’s national regulator, Communication Commission, found “signs of war propaganda” in Alt-Info TV broadcast but nonetheless dismissed a complaint demanding to declare the channel as a violator over normalizing war crimes in Ukraine that would have a detrimental effect on minors.

The Communications Commission instead deferred the case to the self-regulatory body, citing the law on broadcasting.

Alt-Info rose to notoriety after spearheading an anti-LGBT Pride demonstration on July 5, which quickly devolved into homophobic pogroms that left about 50 journalists injured.

Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria has called on the authorities to charge Alt-Info leader Zurab Makharadze, now serving as the Conservative Movement chair, with organizing the mass violence.

No organizers of violent events in July were brought to justice so far.

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