Moscow denounces an “attempted” coup
The Kremlin said it sees the current mobilization in Georgia as “the hand” of the United States trying to provoke “anti-Russian sentiment”.
Russia on Friday presented massive protests in Georgia as an “attempt” in the West as a coup that forced the government to drop a bill that critics have compared to repressive Russian legislation. The Russian presidency said it saw in the mobilization “the hand” of the United States trying to provoke “anti-Russian sentiment”.
After three days of demonstrations by tens of thousands of people, sometimes enamelled with violence, the Georgian Parliament finally revoked the controversial text on Friday. As the government had promised the day before, which had also announced the release of all those arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday. This movement illustrates the political crisis that has been agitating Georgia for several years, a Caucasian country candidate for the EU where part of the population fears an authoritarian drift on the Russian model.
The demonstrators and the opposition also compared the abandoned bill to a text in force in Russia on “foreign agents” and used to silence opponents of the Kremlin. Concretely, the text planned to classify as “foreign agents” NGOs and media receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad, under penalty of fines.
For Moscow, the mobilization is a “pretext to launch an attempt at regime change by force”, said Friday the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov. He compared the protests to the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, seen by Moscow as a coup plotted by the West that has supported Ukraine in the face of Russian invasion for a year.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously attacked Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili – a pro-Western critic of the government but with limited powers – stressing that she had hailed the announcement of the withdrawal of the government as a “victory”. text “not from Georgia, but from America”.
It is therefore a sign that “someone’s clearly visible hand is trying to provoke anti-Russian sentiment,” said Dmitry Peskov, in an accusation clearly aimed at Washington. “It has been more than two centuries (…) (the Russians) have been attacking, attacking, occupying the territories of sovereign countries (…), what is important is what the Georgian population wanted to say when she went out into the street once again,” Salomé Zourabichvili told LCI on Friday from New York.
“Very strong pressures”
“We already have Russian troops at home (…) that did not prevent Georgia from remaining independent and continuing its path towards Europe (…) nothing can prevent us from doing so”, she continued, hammering that it is “the only path that exists for a sovereign and independent Georgia”.
In the evening, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave his support to President Zurabishvili and assured her that “Germany supports Georgia on the way to Europe”. “This path includes freedom of the press and of civil society,” he added. The White House, whose national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with the Georgian president in the morning, said that Washington “welcomed” the decision of the Tbilisi government to withdraw the bill.
The US official also called on Georgia to respect the sanctions imposed by some 30 countries on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. “Mr. Sullivan stressed that Georgia must avoid being used to evade or compensate for sanctions,” said a statement from the US executive.
Protesters in front of Parliament
Previously, French President Emmanuel Macron had denounced “very strong pressure” weighing on Georgia, “crossed by worrying movements”, wishing “an appeasement in relation to regional tensions”. Georgia, a former Soviet republic defeated in a short war against Russia in 2008, officially aims to join the European Union and NATO. But the imprisonment of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili at the end of 2021 and several recent controversial moves by the ruling party have cast doubt on his pro-Western aspirations. Mikhail Saakashvili praised the “brilliant resistance” of the demonstrators in the face of “the brutal force used against them”.
He targeted a former prime minister, Bidzina Ivanichvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia before creating the ruling party, Georgian Dream, behind the controversial text. “No Russia with its brutal oligarch is able to defeat them,” he said on Facebook. After the rejection of the text by Parliament at second reading, nearly 300 demonstrators, according to an AFP correspondent, gathered peacefully in front of Parliament on Friday, with a light police presence.
“The Georgian people have prevailed and will continue to fight for their European future,” said Saba Meourmishvili, a 20-year-old student, amid demonstrators holding up “We are Europe” signs.
AFP
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