DISINFO: NATO's next target is a coup in Georgia
SUMMARY
Current demonstrations in Georgia were inspired by US and EU agents. At present, it is impossible to predict whether the Georgian government will be able to resist, or whether it will be a new edition of the US and NATO-led coups that took place in Yugoslavia, Ukraine and other countries.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about colour revolutions, portraying popular protests in the former Soviet republics as Western-instigated coup d'état.
There is no evidence that recent protests in Georgia were a Western-orchestrated attempt to forcibly change power. Massive protests erupted in Tbilisi after the Georgian parliament passed the first reading of a controversial bill requiring some organisations receiving foreign funding to register as “foreign agents”.
Many protesters saw the draft law as a legal step inspired by similar laws in Russia and they protested against it. Further, the draft law caused fears that it could impede Georgia’s hopes for closer ties with the European Union, following local and international criticism, including from the US, EU and its member states, as well as the UN. Notably, the protests were met with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons from the riot police that dispersed the rally using force.
As a result of the mass protests, the Georgian Parliament dropped the “foreign agents” bill after the ruling party withdrew support.
Pro-Kremlin media frequently falsely portray popular protests around the world as instigated from abroad, often by the US and the West. The disinformation narrative has been applied, among others, to reports about protests in Georgia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belarus, Venezuela, Slovakia and Hong Kong, with the aim of portraying protest movements as aggressive actors who constantly prepare new coups.
Pro-Kremlin outlets persistently portray the Euromaidan revolution as a coup d’état. The spontaneous onset of the protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.
Read similar cases claiming that the US is behind attempts to "shake" the situation in Georgia, that protests in Georgia are attempt to forcibly change power, resembling Euromaidan and that Bernard-Henri Lévy was involved in the coups d’états in Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and now Belarus