Georgia’s constitution still mandates that the government take steps to seek membership in the European Union, but you would never know it by reading the State Security Service’s latest Annual Report. The document’s contents show how far and how fast the country’s Georgian Dream leaders have moved from being professed admirers to avowed enemies of Western values.

The Annual Report 2024, published in late April, portrays the collective West as a threat to Georgia’s sovereignty, conspiring to topple incumbent authorities while using hybrid warfare tactics to foment civil unrest, derail economic progress and pollute the minds of young people with ideas alien to Georgian traditions. 

The report repeats unfounded allegations that foreign governments are intent on ousting the Georgian Dream leadership. While the report does not name any specific foreign nations as being behind coup conspiracies, in late 2023 officials accused the United States, specifically the now dismantled US Agency for International Development, of funding a coup conspiracy. 

And last July, security services officials claimed to have discovered a plot involving Ukraine to assassinate Georgian Dream’s billionaire impresario, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The report additionally attempts to justify government efforts to muzzle mass media by claiming that some unnamed independent outlets collaborated with unspecified foreign entities to undermine public order. “During the reporting period, certain media outlets and journalists were identified who, on the instructions and with the financial support of persons affiliated with foreign special services, governmental or non-governmental organizations, implemented projects in Georgia that served the interests of certain countries, openly engaged in propaganda in favor of foreign countries and unfounded criticism of the State,” the report claims. 

Opposition politicians assailed the document, citing the lack of substantiation to support claims of Western meddling. Ana Natsvlishvili, a leader of the Lelo Party, said the report reads as if “it were written in Moscow,” adding that it frames domestic dissent and foreign influence in ways that consistent with Kremlin narratives.

While the report spills lots of ink on supposed Western malign activities, it also characterizes Russia’s occupation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a major national security challenge. It additionally indulges in a bit of gloating, noting that national elections held around the world in 2024, including in Georgia and the United States, led to political outcomes that brought the “global geopolitical agenda” into closer alignment with Georgia Dream’s priorities. The changing geopolitical landscape facilitates “the implementation of national policies for those countries that are committed to the protection of traditional values,” the report adds.