On August 12, 2026, during a government briefing, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze repeatedly referred to television stations with critical editorial policies, including Formula and TV Pirveli, as “party television stations.” He accused them of fuelling Russophobic sentiment and repeatedly described TV Pirveli journalist Rusudan Dumbadze as a “foreign agent” and a propagandist for the United National Movement.

When a TV Pirveli journalist asked why the Prime Minister devoted so much attention to the issue of Russophobia, Kobakhidze said that such sentiments were being deliberately incited by “foreign agents” and subsequently amplified by what he described as party-affiliated television stations, including TV Pirveli.

“You, the representatives of party television stations, are involved in this. This is a coordinated campaign, and all of this is being organized from abroad,” Kobakhidze told journalist Rusudan Dumbadze. “Your party activists are walking on the beach with [Russophobic] banners, aren’t they? They are agents, and you are covering this by presenting it as people protesting against Russian tourists in Georgia,” he told the journalist.