OSCE Official Travelled to Event in Georgia Organized by Top Ruling Party Member

Last September, a senior official of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) flew to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to attend a football match.

At first glance, the trip had little political significance.

The OSCE official, Roberto Montella, is himself a former football player. He travelled with veteran members of a hometown club, AC Milan, who were set to play a friendly match against a Georgian team. And the local organizer of the event, a former AC Milan player named Kakha Kaladze, was an old friend.

But there was more in the air than just football.

In just a few weeks, Georgia was set to hold a pivotal parliamentary election. The country’s ruling party, Georgian Dream — which had cracked down on civil society, media, and the political opposition amid mass protests — was seeking its fourth term in office.

And the two old friends both had important parts to play. 

Since leaving football, Kaladze has pursued a stellar career with Georgian Dream and, as the mayor of Tbilisi, is now one of the party’s top figures.

Montella, meanwhile, was about to play a significant role in the OSCE’s high-profile election observation mission. As Secretary General of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly, he would not only participate as an observer, but also help administer the mission and take part in a closed-room discussion over the wording of its initial post-election report.

His trip to Georgia raises questions about his impartiality and his adherence to OSCE rules and guidelines at a crucial time, experts and other OSCE Parliamentary Assembly officials say.

“It is not appropriate to participate in situations involving political parties, especially given the highly sensitive discussion currently taking place about Georgia,” said Johan Büser, the Parliamentary Assembly’s Treasurer.

The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization, and a leading election monitoring group. Its reports about the conduct of Georgia’s elections play a prominent role in assessing the extent to which the country has tilted towards authoritarian rule.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly code of conduct requires staff to “refrain from any action that might cast doubt on their ability to act impartially.” And OSCE election observation guidelines state that “any potential conflicts of interest which could raise doubts in the eyes of a seemingly reasonable and neutral person … disqualifies a candidate from being an observer.”

In an email to reporters, Montella said there was no conflict of interest.

“Attending a football match does not disqualify an election observer,” he wrote. “My participation at these events was known and public as I myself disclosed it on social media.”

“I did not participate in events organized by the Georgian Dream,” he added. “I accepted an invitation from the AC Milan Legends together with a number of AC Milan former football players whom I have known for years.”

Montella also said he had friendships from across the Georgian political spectrum. “These relationships were well known to the OSCE PA Election Observation Leadership,” he wrote.

But experts say that, in this context, even seemingly non-political events carry significance.

Georgian Dream “is using invitations to high-profile and often exclusive events to woo foreign officials and prejudice them in favour of the Georgian authorities,” wrote Anton Shekhovtsov, a visiting professor at Vienna’s Central European University, in a message to reporters.

“Kaladze directly uses his background in football for political purposes,” wrote Hans Gutbrod, a professor in policy studies at Tbilisi’s Ilia State University who regularly publishes on ethics in politics. “The mobilization of his old teammates is part of an orchestrated attempt to give himself a glamorous veneer.”

Montella’s actions fall “significantly short of the standard that sensible and reasonable people expect,” Gutbrod told OCCRP.

“Why does an official travel to a country, invited, in which there is an ongoing assault on the rule of law? Any child can see from a kilometer away that you don't accept hospitality, or that if you do, you have to recuse yourself in any official dealings,” he added.

Kaladze did not respond to a request for comment.

‘The Secretary General must serve as a role model’

Pia Kauma, the President of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly, who had invited Montella to the closed-door meeting about the post-election report, denied that he had breached the observers’ code of conduct.

“Roberto has never hidden from me and the OSCE PA leadership his friendship with all election stakeholders in Georgia,” she wrote.

“We as international election observers know many of the election stakeholders in the countries where we observe. With some we are close friends,” she wrote. “This fact however does not interfere with our honest and impartial execution of our observers functions.”

But at a January meeting of the OSCE PA Bureau, Kauma is known to have approved of another official’s decision not to apply to observe the Georgian election because his wife was from the country.

In that meeting, she called the decision both "a good choice," and "the only choice."

When presented with reporters’ findings, other senior OSCE officials expressed dismay at Montella’s conduct.

“The Secretary General must serve as a role model,” wrote Daniela De Ridder, vice-chair of the Parliamentary Assembly. “If he doesn’t, other observers may no longer take our rules seriously enough.”

“Respecting the code of conduct means we have to be prepared that there could be a melting between a personal friendship and your function, especially if you know each other for a long time,” she added. “This seems to be the case between [Kakha Kaladze] and Secretary General Montella.”

Büser, the Parliamentary Assembly’s treasurer, said that the matter could lead to an investigation: “It is crucial that we are not questioned or seen as supporting any particular party. That is why this information needs to be examined further. We have a policy that mandates strict political neutrality.”

Stadium Inauguration

This is not the first time Montella has attended a football-related event in Georgia just before taking part in a high-profile election observation mission.

Days before the previous parliamentary elections in 2020, a government-funded football stadium in the coastal city of Batumi was inaugurated featuring speeches by Kaladze alongside Georgia’s prime minister. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a limited number of people attended the event — but one of them was Montella, as shown in an image published by the Georgian Football Federation. Immediately afterward, he joined the OSCE’s election observation mission. On this occasion, too, he joined the closed-room negotiations about the final election report.

The OSCE’s subsequent report cited the stadium’s inauguration as an example of how the ruling party sought to blur the lines between itself and the government in an attempt to buy votes.

Asked about this event, Montella wrote to reporters: “I asked for an invitation to this event for me and some colleagues from the then-Prime Minster and Speaker of Parliament as this was an interesting opportunity to get the full picture of the pre-electoral environment.”

‘An Uneven Playing Field’

The more recent election, held on October 26, 2024, was even more contentious. 

Georgian Dream’s definitive victory was decried by the opposition and local civil society groups, who alleged widespread election fraud. In the months since, the country has been roiled by impassioned protests marred by police violence. 

As is the normal practice for the OSCE, which seeks to avoid political judgement and evaluate elections only on technical conduct, the organization’s preliminary post-election report does not reach a definitive conclusion about whether the ruling party’s victory was legitimate.

The report says Georgian voters had “a wide choice” and that “preparations for the election were well-administered.” But the OSCE mission cites a number of serious problems, including “reports of intimidation and pressure on voters” and “an uneven playing field.”

Montella is not known to have participated in the writing of the report, and beyond his participation in a closed-room discussion about it there is no evidence that he had any specific influence.

“As Secretary General, it is not my job to negotiate the preliminary statement,” Montella wrote in his response to reporters. “That is the role of the Special Coordinator and the Head of Delegation, not the OSCE PA Secretariat.”

The report has been cited by both Georgian Dream and by the party’s opponents in support of their positions.

Shekhovtsov, of Central European University, told reporters that “major Western decision makers take reports and conclusions of OSCE observation missions into consideration when deciding on political, economic and other relations with Georgia.”

“Hence, it is in the [Georgian Dream’s] interests to win over foreign officials who are directly linked to reporting on Georgia for organizations such as the OSCE,” he added.