The United States has rejected accusations by Russian authorities that the US is planning a “Tbilisi Maidan” in Georgia. These accusations met with a cautious reaction in Tbilisi.
On 28 August Spokesperson for the US State Department According to reports described the Claim that the USA is preparing “colour revolutions” in Georgia is “categorically false”.
“The Kremlin staged the invasion in 2008 and today occupies 20% of Georgia’s sovereign territory while continuing its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. We stand with Georgia against Russian aggression,” journalist Alex Raufoglu quoted said a spokesman.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on Monday claims that Washington is planning a “color revolution” or a “Maidan” in Georgia to prevent the Georgian Dream from being re-elected in the parliamentary elections in October.
In its statement, the SVR described the Georgian opposition as “fragmented” and unable to stable coalitions, while portraying the ruling party as capable of obtaining a “convincing vote of confidence from the people”. They claimed that this situation had angered Washington, which, they claimed, controlled the opposition and was dissatisfied with the possibility of Georgian Dream “continuing its sovereign course and refusing to comply with Western demands that run counter to Georgia’s national interests”.
They further claimed that Washington plans to use its “proven means” to weaken the ruling party through personal sanctions against its “leading politicians”, their family members and party sponsors in the run-up to Georgia’s parliamentary elections in October.
The SVR claimed that the US government was supporting Georgia-based “pro-Western NGOs” and their mobilized election observers to accuse the government of electoral fraud through the misuse of administrative resources, “even though there were no such cases.” It also claimed that the US was funding “opposition youth groups” to serve as an “engine” for mobilizing street protests that would lead to a “Tbilisi Maidan.”
Russian intelligence further claimed that if the Georgian Dream party won the elections, protests would break out. Georgian law enforcement agencies would then be “provoked to violently suppress the protests,” which would then be met with harsh “political and economic” reactions from the Americans.
A day later, SVR Chairman Sergei Naryshkin, a long-time confidant of Putin with the same KGB background, commented on the statement as follows: claims that their intention in publishing these “findings” was to prevent such developments in Georgia.
Georgian Dream no longer focuses on Russia
Georgian Dream’s reactions to the Russian allegations, unlike those of the US, seemed to confirm the SVR’s conclusions.
On Tuesday, Kakha Kaladze, Secretary General of Georgian Dream and Mayor of Tbilisi, said claims that foreign powers – although without specifying which ones – were actually supporting Georgian opposition groups that had “preached the need for a revolution in the country.” He claimed that to acknowledge this fact, “no statement from the Russian secret services is required,” as it was already obvious.
When asked whether he thought the SVR statement represented Russian interference in Georgia’s internal affairs, Kaladze replied that neither Russia, nor America, nor the West were capable of doing so. He then quickly moved on to criticizing the Danish embassy, accusing it of financing the election campaign events of an opposition group.
(Read more: Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Bureau demands financial reports from organizers of Democracy Festival)
Georgian Dream has already accused USAID, the US government aid agency, accuses the US of “inciting insurrection” in the country and training groups that planned such insurrections and provoked violence. They have also repeatedly referred to their political rivals, which they usually refer to as a “collective national movement,” as “spy troops” controlled by foreign powers, strongly suggesting that these powers are Western.
Georgian Dream only recently clarified They considered them part of the “collective national movement,” listed all major pro-Western political parties and groups, and threatened to ban them after the elections.
Despite its dramatic anti-Western turn in recent years, the ruling party claims it still seeks membership in the EU and NATO, which enjoys overwhelming popular support. It backs this up by claiming it is trying to protect Georgia’s sovereignty from the so-called “global war party,” a conspiracy theory that holds that an international conspiracy controls the political elite of Europe and America.
At the end of July, the Georgian State Security Service (SSG) started an investigation into a plot to assassinate Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream and former prime minister, and an alleged coup attempt. Unfinished investigations into coup attempts, none of which pointed to non-Western actors, were a recurring theme during the reign of the Georgian Dream since 2014.
In its announcement last September to launch an investigation, the SSG also said: claims There is a plan to “implement in Georgia a scenario similar to the Euromaidan in Ukraine in 2014”.
In his April speech, which was widely seen by his critics as a defiance of Western powers even though he did not name them, Ivanishvili warned: “Today’s Georgia is neither the Georgia of the era of (Georgian President Eduard) Shevardnadze, nor the Ukraine of the time of Yanukovych.”
“It is impossible to change the government in today’s Georgia through the unpopular nationalists (the previously ruling United National Movement) and NGOs,” Ivanishvili claimed.
In their criticism of the Rose Revolution of 2003, members of the ruling party also adopted Russian rhetoric, describing it as a change of power orchestrated by foreign powers, without, however, specifying who actually orchestrated it.
In March last year, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, then chairman of the party, said called He called it a “revolution of spies” and stressed that the current government would not allow something like this to happen again.
