Many Georgia protesters are foreigners – lawmaker
Up to a third of those identified at recent protests in Georgias capital Tbilisi have turned out to be foreign nationals, according to the executive secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze.
Anti-government protests broke out in the Georgian capital last week after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that he would be suspending accession talks with the EU due to Brussels’ “constant blackmail and manipulation” of the former Soviet republic’s domestic politics.
Pro-EU protesters have since taken to the streets and repeatedly clashed with law enforcement, setting off fireworks and throwing Molotov cocktails at riot police, as well as setting fire to the parliament building. Law enforcement officials have in turn deployed tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to disperse the protesters, over 200 of whom have reportedly been arrested.
More than 110 police officers have also been injured during the protests.
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, Mdinaradze claimed that “30% of the people who were identified at the protests in Tbilisi are citizens of other countries.”
“What’s going on? Someone has to explain this strangeness. Why are these foreign citizens so upset after our decision?” the politician asked, noting that there were many Russian citizens among the detained protesters, as well as people from the US, the UK and the Netherlands.
Following the escalation of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in 2022, Georgia became one of the primary destinations for Russian citizens who disagreed with Russia’s policies.
Meanwhile, Kobakhidze slammed the protests as an “attack on the constitutional order” in Georgia, and blamed the civil unrest on “EU politicians and their agents.”
He also claimed that the West was trying to orchestrate a Maidan-style revolution in Georgia, referring to the US-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, which ousted the country’s democratically elected president and precipitated the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The Georgian leader has said that those behind the protests will not be able to realize the Maidan scenario in his country because, “unlike Ukraine in 2013, Georgia is an independent state with strong institutions and, most importantly, experienced and wise people.”
Moscow has also compared the anti-government protests in Georgia to the Maidan coup, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stating that the unrest exhibits “all the signs of an attempt to carry out an ‘orange revolution’.”
