DISINFO: Protests in Georgia orchestrated from abroad
SUMMARY
The situation in Georgia is orchestrated from abroad to create instability near Russia’s borders. Protests against the bill on foreign agents are a pretext to start a power change attempt through force. Protests are similar to Kyiv’s Maidan that led to the coup in Ukraine in 2014.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about foreign-led ‘colour revolutions’, Ukraine’s Maidan protests and Russia as the ultimate target of international events.
Framing all popular protests against Russia’s interests as foreign-led ‘colour revolutions’ is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative. There is now evidence to back any of these allegations. In fact, Georgia’s protests seem to be driven by strong rejection among Georgian citizens of the controversial ‘foreign agents' law’, which critics say mirrors a 2012 law in Russia used to crack down on dissent and suppress western-funded NGOs and media and which could be used to restrict freedom of expression and association. Contrary to what this disinformation story claims, there is no trace of foreign interference in these protests.
Allegations about Ukraine’s Maidan protests as a foreign-sponsored regime change operation have been debunked many times by EUvsDisinfo (see for example here).
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the West arranges puppet governments through colour revolutions, that Kyiv regime came to power as a result of illegal coup organised by the West, that after Ukraine, Western scriptwriters tried to organise coups d’etat in Belarus and Kazakhstan, or that colour revolutions provoked by the US and NATO created the migration crisis.