Russian MoFA: Russia, Georgia ‘allies’ in defending ‘traditional values’ against West
Russia on alliance with Georgia
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova devoted much of her 15 September briefing to Georgia. She spoke about the Georgiyevsky and Father Gabriel military units, which were formed by Georgians living in Russia to fight on the Russian side in the Ukraine war.
Zakharova also referred to the 1783 Treaty of Georgievsk, under which Georgian King Erekle II entered into an alliance with the Russian Empire.
“Russia and Georgia are allies in the fight to preserve the family and traditional values, while Western countries are trying to deprive Georgia of its historical memory,” Zakharova said.
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Maria Zakharova on Treaty of Georgievsk
“The name of the unit, ‘Georgiyevsky’, reminded me of the 1783 Treaty of Georgievsk, when King Erekle II took a historic step and chose the Russian Empire, which at the time was the largest Orthodox state, as an ally. The signing of the treaty saved Georgia.
I think everyone understands this very well. For Georgia, the treaty was concluded at an extremely difficult point in its history, when the country’s very existence was under threat, and it made it possible to preserve its religion, culture and people. That is why I made this association,” Zakharova said.
The Treaty of Georgievsk became the focus of political controversy in Georgia in August. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze described King Erekle II’s decision as “wise” and said there had been no alternative, arguing that it had saved Georgia as a state and nation. His remarks prompted a strong reaction from the opposition. His opponents accused him of portraying Russian imperial policy as historically beneficial to Georgia and of distorting the country’s history.
The Georgiyevsky unit was established in Russia in early September. Its commander was named as Otar Romanov-Partskhaladze, Georgia’s former prosecutor-general. He lives in Russia, is under US and UK sanctions, and faces criminal charges in Georgia over allegations that he organised a contract killing. Russia describes him as a veteran of the war against Ukraine.
The Georgian Orthodox Church strongly opposed the creation of a military unit named after Georgian Archimandrite Gabriel Urgebadze. The head of the Georgian Patriarchate’s press service said it was “particularly unacceptable that individual clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church support this initiative”.
According to Zakharova, Georgians have “long been helping” Russian-backed administrations operating in occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
“Since the start of the special military operation, a large number of ethnic Georgians have voluntarily gone to the front and continue to take part, including in combat operations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
Asked about the Georgian volunteers in the Russian army whom she had mentioned, Zakharova suggested “looking not at who is on which side, but at what values each side stands for”.
She cited Georgians fighting alongside people of other nationalities during World War Two as an example.
“At that time, 700,000 Georgians went to the front. And how many people did Georgia take in during the evacuation?” she said.
Zakharova also recalled Georgian soldier Meliton Kantaria, who, together with Russian soldier Mikhail Yegorov, raised the Soviet banner over the Reichstag in May 1945.
“Their feat became a symbol of the brotherhood in arms between Russians and Georgians,” Zakharova said.
“Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were not fighting for one side or another. They were fighting Nazism, an ideology which held that the world should be divided along racial and national lines into those who deserved everything and those who deserved nothing except what those who deserved everything allowed them to have. That is what they fought against. And that is exactly what we are fighting against now,” she also noted.
Zakharova on family values and West seeking to ‘take them away’
“We and the Georgians are also allies in the fight to preserve the family,” Zakharova said, pointing to what she described as spiritual and moral values shared by the two peoples, including their way of life, traditions, art and culture.
She went on to say accuse Western countries of “trying to impose anti-values on Georgia”.
“We can see that a real struggle is taking place on this front as well. Together, we are protecting children from destructive ideology. They say that children are supposedly neither boys nor girls, that there is almost some kind of third gender. Or that they can be whatever they want: perhaps a chair, perhaps a saucepan. They can decide later in life. That is the kind of ideology they have there in the West,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
“Western countries are now trying to deprive Georgia of its historical memory and undermine the Orthodox foundations of society. This is exactly what we were talking about in the case of Armenia. They do not understand that this is impossible. Georgia has responded in a way that has further strengthened its commitment to respecting its own historical heritage,” Zakharova added.
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Zakharova also spotlighted volunteers of the Georgiyevsky unit. She said she was certain what its members, whom she described as ethnic Georgians, were fighting for: “They are fighting for truth, for love of their history and their ancestors.”
“It is terrible to imagine what my grandfathers would have gone through if they had seen how [in Ukraine] the remains of the scoundrels Yevhen Konovalets and Andriy Melnyk [Ukrainian nationalists] were reburied. How they glorified the memory of Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera. How they portrayed them as heroes and erected monuments to them.
How can we not fight against this? What will they turn us into afterwards? People like them, who have had their sexual organs changed 33 times? No, thank you,” she concluded.
