Champions of Violence

Pro-Kremlin Outlets as Amplifiers of Hate Speech in Georgia

A campaign by Kremlin-friendly outlets against LGBT+ Pride Week in Tbilisi created fertile ground for violent demonstrations. Anti-liberal, ultra-conservative and pro-Kremlin actors aired various anti-Western allegations before and after Pride Week, including that the West is imposing homosexuality on Georgia. Pro-Kremlin outlets amplified anti-Western attitudes, describing the plans for a Pride March as foreign aggression. The aggression forced the organisers to cancel the event.

On 5 July, when Tbilisi’s Pride March for Dignity was scheduled, violent anti-LGBT+ groups took to the streets of Tbilisi, attacking activists and the media, storming the offices of Tbilisi Pride and Shame Movement, and causing material damage and personal injuries. Overall, 55 people were attacked during the violent clashes, among whom 53 representatives of media, while one foreign citizen was stabbed in a homophobic attack over an earring. Later, on 11 July, the sudden death of a TV Pirveli camera operator who had been assaulted during anti-LGBT+ violence, sparked protests by journalists and media representatives, with civil society organisations calling on the government to take responsibility.

Local and international organisations and embassies also condemned the attacks. Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia reacted by stating that the authorities’ failure to protect Tbilisi Pride had once again encouraged violence. Reporters without Borders also responded, calling on the government to condemn and investigate all violent acts.

Preparing the Attack

The pro-Kremlin outlet Alt-Info nurtured anti-Western narratives. The outlet’s hosts participated in the organisation of anti-Pride demonstrations and spread controversial messages aimed at mobilising violent groups. The first messages started to appear a month before the planned Pride event and enabled the escalation of the situation:

“Alternative for Georgia” [an NGO registered by Alt-Info hosts] and “Alt-Info” will obviously start to mobilise people, and I am sure that there will be many of us. So that they will not only be unable to hold the march, but they would find it inconceivable that something similar might ever happen. No one will be able to protect them. I am telling you this directly!”

Examples of other statements in which “Alternative for Georgia” identified Western diplomats as targets can be found here and here.

Other local pro-Kremlin outlets joined Alt-Info in disseminating these narratives, including Obieqtivi TV, affiliated with the Kremlin-friendly Alliance of Patriots party; Georgia and the World; and News Front Georgia.

“The gay parade will be a sign that the LGBT+ dictatorship is strengthening in Georgia and the country continues to live according to the agenda dictated by the ‘Blue Commissioners’.”

“Blue Commissioners” refers to a Russian derogatory word for gay men: голубой, “goluboy”, literally “blue”.

Alongside these narratives, pro-Kremlin media outlets also amplified messages developed by a number of pro-Kremlin politicians (examples here and here) that the West is fighting against Georgian identity, its traditions, the Orthodox Church, and the family as an institution, i.e., the core values of the majority of the Georgian people (see examples here and here).

“Activists of this organisation [Tbilisi Pride] actively oppose the Orthodox Church, the clergy and, in general, traditional Christian values, as well as the institution of the family.”

Calling for Violence

After 5 July, additional narratives blamed the West for escalating the situation in Georgia and causing civil unrest. Rhetoric from pro-Kremlin outlets such as Alt-Info and Georgia and the World turned more assertive, targeting Western diplomats as well as the EU and the US in general, and threatening more violent attacks:

“We must strike at their authority because they are attacking nationality and Christianity here. What we have done, a symbolic act towards these flags, should become a daily routine.”

One of the hosts of the far-right Alt-Info directly called on its supporters to carry out vandalism by urging them to burn the EU flag and upload videos on Facebook challenging their friends to do so as well. As a result, a supporter of the ultra-conservative, pro-Kremlin political figure Levan Vasadze and his ERI party burned the EU flag in protest at alleged insults against Georgian saints.

Russian state media, as RT and RIA Novosti depicted individuals burning the EU flag in different European countries at different times, giving the impression that anti-EU attitudes are widespread.

Attacking the West

A photo with commentary disseminated on Facebook claimed to show European Council President Charles Michel who arrived in Georgia in a dress to show solidarity with the Pride Parade.

In fact, the photo was taken at the Pitti Uomo fashion show in Florence and depicted one of the show’s participants. The source appears to frequently share content of the same violent groups that organised the 5-6 July events. After Myth Detector, a fact-checking platform from Georgia, checked the content and labelled it on Facebook, the account deleted the post.

A video initially published in 2017 falsely claiming that Moldova and Georgia obtained visa liberalisation regimes with Europe in exchange for legalising gay marriage was shared by several pages. The video presents Iurie Roșca as the “former Prime Minister of Moldova” (he was Deputy Prime Minister from June to September 2009) talking about an anti-discrimination law and not the visa liberalisation agreement.

An article by Tvalsazrisi, a pro-Kremlin media outlet, claimed that European Council President Charles Michel stated that Georgia is one generation away from EU membership because this generation is not sufficiently corrupt and depraved.

Threatening Diplomats

Rhetoric towards foreign ambassadors became especially harsh in the aftermath of the violence on 5-6 July. The Alt-Info outlet stood out as the most hateful. As demonstrated in the examples above, on 8 July, Alt-info hosts made threatening statements about marching towards the US and EU embassies and insulting them. One of the hosts asserted that burning the EU flag would be child’s play compared to what they were planning against the embassies the next day. The other host claimed that the wrath of the Georgian people should be directed towards the EU and US embassies, as they are the “masterminds behind all perversion in Georgia”.

The pro-Kremlin outlet News Front Georgia also amplified insults towards foreign embassy staff, alleging that members of the Delegation of the European Union in Georgia are mentally and politically brainless, and that they have insulted the Georgian people in recent years. Furthermore, US Ambassador Kelly Degnan was blamed for subliminally transforming Georgia into a colony of the US, where freedom of speech and expression is being restricted in the name of democracy. Degnan, along with other Western diplomats, was also accused of indirectly benefiting Russia and its aims in the region by supporting the LGBT+ campaign in Georgia. News Front Georgia even pushed an initiative to declare Degnan persona non grata since she has humiliated the Georgian constitution, state, and population.

Amplifying Hate Speech

The anti-LGBT+ campaign on pro-Kremlin media outlets before and after the cancelled Pride March in Tbilisi was an example of far-right attacks on democratic values in Georgia. It also cultivated and advanced anti-Western attitudes and incited hateful rhetoric towards Georgia’s Western partners. Such violence clearly hinders Georgia’s path towards joining the EU and NATO and favours Russia’s intent to halt Georgian Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Pro-Kremlin media used the moment, benefiting from national and religious sentiments and subverting the Georgian information space in favour of the Kremlin’s position.