Facing condemnation from the United States and defiance from his own president, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze praised police on Sunday for cracking down on protesters who he said were acting on foreign orders to undermine the state. Were staying.
Georgia, a country of 3.7 million people that was once part of the Soviet Union, has been plunged into crisis after the ruling Georgian Dream party said on Thursday it was blocking EU accession talks for the next four years.
The European Union and the United States are concerned that they are seeing Georgia move away from a pro-West path and back toward Russia’s orbit. There have been major anti-government protests in the capital, Tbilisi, for the past three nights, with police firing water cannon and tear gas into crowds.
More protests are planned in Tbilisi for Sunday night, and local media reported that demonstrations were taking place in towns and cities across the country.
Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that a revolution was being attempted in Georgia. The former Russian president said on Telegram that Georgia was “moving rapidly towards the dark abyss on the Ukrainian path. Usually things like this end very badly.”
Medvedev, once seen as a modernizing reformer, has reinvented himself as a hawkish hawk since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, often issuing dire warnings to Kiev and its Western backers. Are.
The Kremlin has yet to comment on the latest events in Georgia, but it has long accused the West of fomenting revolutions in the post-Soviet countries, which Moscow still considers part of its sphere of influence.
‘foreign instructor’
Georgian Prime Minister Kobakhidze rejected criticism from the United States, which has condemned the use of “excessive force” against protesters.
“Despite the most massive systematic violence committed yesterday by violent groups and their foreign trainers, the police acted to higher standards than American and European ones and have shown the state yet another violation of the constitutional order,” he told a news conference. Successfully rescued with effort.” , without providing evidence of foreign involvement.
Kobakhidze also rejected Washington’s announcement on Saturday that it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia. He said it was a “temporary incident,” and that Georgia would talk to President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration when it takes office in January.
As the country’s constitutional crisis deepens, outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili – a critic of the government and a strong supporter of Georgian membership of the European Union – said on Saturday she would refuse to step down when her term ends at the end of this month.
Zourabichvili said she would remain in office because the new parliament – elected in elections in October that the opposition says was rigged – was illegitimate and she had no authority to name her successor.
Kobakhidze said he understood Zourabichvili’s “emotional state”.
“But certainly on December 29, he will have to leave his residence and hand over this building to the legitimately elected President,” he said.
Georgian Dream has nominated Mikhail Kavelashvili, a former football star with a record of radical, anti-West statements, as its candidate for president. The head of state will be selected on December 14 by an electoral college consisting of members of parliament and local government representatives.
‘Foreign Agent’
For much of the time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia has leaned strongly toward the West and tried to reduce Russia’s influence, losing a brief war in 2008. It was eventually promised NATO membership, and became an official candidate for EU accession last year.
But domestic opponents and Western governments have become concerned over the Georgian Dream government’s increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies.
In June, it enacted a law obliging NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. In September, parliament approved a law curbing LGBT rights.
The government says it is working to protect the country from foreign interference and avoid suffering the fate of Ukraine by being dragged into a new war with Russia.
The EU’s new foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed solidarity with the protesters on Sunday.
“We stand with the Georgian people and their choice for a European future,” he posted on Twitter.
“We condemn the violence against protesters and regret the ruling party’s signals of Georgia not following the EU path and retreating from the country’s democratic path. This will have direct consequences for the EU.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
