DISINFO: The US plans a colour revolution in Georgia after October elections
SUMMARY
The Americans are preparing to provoke a colour revolution in Tbilisi similar to the events of the Maidan in Kyiv in 2014. Washington plans to publish "evidence of electoral fraud in Georgia" and then declare non-recognition of the election results and demand a change of government. Then the police and security will be provoked to suppress the protests by force. The Americans intend to significantly increase pressure on the Georgian authorities in the remaining weeks before the elections in order to weaken the electoral position of the Georgian Dream party as much as possible. They plan to use proven means such as imposing personal sanctions against senior figures of the ruling party and their family members, as well as against the party's financiers.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, pre-emptively framing any future protests in Georgia as a US-sponsored colour revolution.
This claim is an attempt to discredit potential protests and justify repressive measures against them in light of the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Georgia on October 26th 2024. Human rights organisation Amnesty International has previously accused Georgia’s police of excessive use of force against overwhelmingly peaceful protesters.
Pro-Kremlin media frequently falsely portray popular protests around the world as "colour revolutions" instigated from abroad, often by the US and the West. The disinformation narrative has been applied, among others, to reports about protests in Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belarus, Venezuela, Slovakia, Hong Kong, with the aim of portraying protest movements as aggressive actors who constantly prepare new coups.
Recent protests in Georgia were not instigated by any foreign power, but were driven by a 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 NGOs and media, and which could be used to restrict freedom of expression and association.
The so-called ‘Foreign Agents’ law, inspired by a similar repressive measure in Russia, that may endanger the democratic reforms Georgia needs to join the European Union, is deeply unpopular among Georgian citizens, and protests have been promoted by a coalition of Georgian opposition parties. Hundreds of thousands of people have attended the protests.
Read also EUvsDisinfo's article on “Georgia: Resilience in action”
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Anglo-Saxons incite protests in Georgia to organise a colour revolution, that Recent demonstration in Tbilisi is western-backed colour revolution, that Protests in Georgia are foreign-supported to generate anti-Russian sentiments, that Protests in Georgia organized by the US Embassy in Tbilisi, that the West is preparing Georgia for a new colour revolution, that The West aims at bringing an anti-Russian government to power in Georgia, that The West wants to initiate Euromaidan in Georgia as revenge for not joining sanctions on Russia, that US is preparing a Maidan in Georgia, or that Protests in Georgia are attempt to forcibly change power, resembling Euromaidan.