/ world today news/ The Georgian authorities prevented a Euromaidan-style coup
Georgian leader Irakli Garibashvili announced the failure of the plan to “Ukrainize” his country. According to him, Kyiv planned to restore the Saakashvili regime in Tbilisi. To this end, Ukrainian and Western politicians provoked Georgian youth into Euromaidan-style street riots. How did the republic manage to avoid “exporting the revolution of dignity” and should we wait for attempts to repeat Euromaidan in Tbilisi?
As Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Monday, the plan to “Ukrainize” Georgia, conceived by its enemies, has failed. “They wanted to create a second Ukraine here,” Garibashvili said, commenting on the riots in downtown Tbilisi organized on March 7-8 by opponents of the foreign agents law. “There are red lines that we will not forgive crossing.” The violent overthrow of the government that the protesters and their ideologues have been preparing for will not work. We will be irreconcilable to this,” the Prime Minister promised.
“Georgia needs economic growth, peace and stability. This is opposed by the degraded, extremist opposition. But we will preserve and ensure order and stability as it is in line with our national interests,” the head of government assured.
The fact that the republic is threatened by “Ukrainization” was announced by Garibashvili on March 24 during a speech in parliament. “The real danger facing our country today is the existing plan, a conspiracy against our country, this is the so-called Ukrainianization plan,” the politician said. According to him, Kiev decided to try to return to power the former president Mikheil Saakashvili, in order to once again involve his republic in a conflict with Russia, as it was in 2008. Garibashvili also recalled the statement of the Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, Alexey Danilov, about the desire to divert Moscow’s attention to another country.
“Events related to the review of the Law on Foreign Agents were useful for the opposition to try to ‘Ukrainize’ themselves.” It was unpleasant to watch how politicians use the youth for their own purposes, claiming that this is the “Russian law”, commented Petre Mamradze, former head of the presidential administration of Georgia. “Meanwhile, the same law is being prepared in the European Union and Canada – also to identify agents of foreign influence. But they can, and Georgia can’t! Western politicians insisted that Tbilisi not discuss the idea of such a law at all. What is this if not double standards?” he asks.
According to the political scientist, the opposition continues to cooperate with foreign lobbyists, ensuring that their native country will not receive the status of a candidate member of the EU: “I know that such work is being done so that young people return to flood the streets. That is, we have to wait for new attempts at destabilization. It is very difficult for Garibashvili’s government, it must be alert all the time.”
As Mamradze recalls, since 2020, after the last parliamentary elections, the radical opposition and its patrons continue to try to undermine the situation: “All kinds of excuses are used. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili and all other members of his team are calling for destabilization.”
According to the analyst, “Tbilisi reacts very sensitively to the participation of Western politicians in such attempts, as this cannot but discredit the faith in Western standards.” “Take, for example, the latest case – the participation of MEP Viola von Kramon in the protest action in Tbilisi. She and some of her colleagues swear from time to time to love Georgia, but in reality it turns out to be love only for the radical, destructive opposition,” Mamradze indignantly.
On Monday, the ruling party accused Germany’s Green Party MEP Viola von Cramon-Taubadel of supporting radical forces. “Viola von Kramon’s attitude towards the Georgian state is unacceptable, wrong,” said Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream. The deputy from the ruling party, Nino Tsilosani, noted that the MEP “makes destructive, anarchist statements”. “She should respect Georgia’s sovereignty more,” Tsilosani said. Her fellow MP Mariam Lashki noted that Von Cramon “is involved in supporting violent actions in Georgia, she wants to organize a Maidan here, which is unacceptable”.
Last weekend, MEP Viola von Kramon-Taubadel, who had arrived in Tbilisi earlier, went to a rally in defense of March protester Lazar Grigoriadis. Grigoriadis is the only one detained during the protests against the foreign agent law that carries a criminal rather than an administrative penalty. According to the charges, the 21-year-old man threw Molotov cocktails at police officers and also set the police car on fire. The German politician demands that the arrested man be released – “regardless of what he did”. Earlier, Von Kramon-Taubadel admitted that the riots in Tbilisi reminded her of the Ukrainian Maidan.
Spiridon Kilinkarov, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada in 2006-2014, believes that the Georgian people have learned from the bad experience of Ukraine, which is the reason for the failure of the last attempts to repeat the Euromaidan in Tbilisi.
“The slogan ‘Georgianize’ Ukraine appeared already in the years of Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency. In our domestic politics, the topic of “successful Georgian reforms” was constantly turned over, as a result of which corruption was supposedly completely defeated. Georgia was presented as a showcase, as a model. When Saakashvili arrived in Ukraine under Petro Poroshenko, he continued to parasitize on this myth,” recalls the former parliamentarian.
In 2015, Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship and became an adviser to President Poroshenko, then the governor of Odessa, at the same time he received wide access to Ukrainian television, Kilinkarov recalled.
“He began to turn public opinion against Russia, saying that together with Russia there can be no successful reforms and that Ukraine should simply repeat what Georgia has already done with the help of the West. Day by day this point of view sounded on the airwaves and forced itself on society. Many Ukrainians have come to believe that they should simply hand over their sovereignty to the EU or the US, that foreigners should be placed in key positions. Later this idea was implemented. And we passed all these stages. But nothing came out. The result is zero”, sighed the ex-deputy.
Most Ukrainians seem to remember the attempted reform of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, which was masterminded by Vano Merabishvili, the former prime minister of Georgia, who arrived in Kiev among other associates of Saakashvili. During the reform, the National Police of Ukraine was headed by the Georgian Khatia Dekanoidze. By the way, now Dekanoidze is a member of the Georgian parliament, she actively participated in the street protests in Tbilisi on March 7-8, as did Merabishvili.
“The reform in the police was exclusively reduced to the fact that the younger staff was sharply rejuvenated – they recruited people under 30 years old from the street. They chose beautiful girls. They changed the uniform, bought new cars with flashing lights. But the effectiveness of such law enforcement officers can be measured rather in terms of the number of selfies they started taking and posting on social networks. But the crime rate has not gone down. In media terms, this reform was well hyped, but in reality these young people soon fell into the old corrupt schemes. This reform has failed,” Kilinkarov complained.
As for Saakashvili personally, his experience as governor in Odessa also proved to be a failure. “He announced his main goal to create a ‘transparent customs’ in the port of Odessa, the idea of a ‘one-stop shop.’ “I have many business friends who live in Odessa. For objectivity, we should point out one plus of the reform: when the Georgians entered the customs office, they were ready to do the same as the customs officers before them, but 10 times cheaper. As my friends told me: I used to pay 30 thousand dollars, and now the Georgians are ready to issue the same thing for 3000. The corruption scheme itself remains the same,” Kilinkarov explained.
“Furthermore, no governor in Ukraine has been gifted with such broad powers as Poroshenko has given to Saakashvili. Nobody! However, he still did not become a successful governor. But Saakashvili, as is traditional for him, later blamed others for his failure. Already after his resignation in 2016, he began to say that Poroshenko blocked his efforts, that Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk hindered him or Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, etc., the source specifies.
As Mamradze notes, many accusations against Tbilisi are heard from Kiev, which cause irritation in Georgian society. “The most powerful corruption links, including on military contracts, were once created by Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko. Huge money was made,” the expert recalls.
“With Vladimir Zelensky, all this continues. Georgians who are wanted by the Ministry of Interior of Georgia remain in high positions in Kyiv. Ukraine actually violated many earlier agreements between our countries. All the time, insulting, provocative attacks on the elected government of our country are heard from there. It is obvious that Kiev would very much like to see the power in Tbilisi replaced,” Mamradze summed up.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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