Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party of displaying ‘fake Russophobia’ directed by ‘external forces’, reviving a narrative echoed by other senior party figures days before the anniversary of the August 2008 War. ‘The foreign agency declared Russia an implacable enemy only after it invaded Ukraine for the second time’, Kobakhidze wrote. ‘Why were they not instructed to be Russophobic when the most pressing reason for this existed, that is, after the August 2008 War, and why were they instructed to be Russophobic now, when the victim of Russian aggression was not their formal homeland, but another, even a friendly country? The prime minister’s statement repeatedly referred to Georgian Dream’s critics as ‘stateless’ and accused them of placing the interests of foreign actors above those of Georgia. She also accused Kobakhidze of launching another propaganda attack against both the West and Georgian society.