DISINFO: Protests in Georgia organized by the US Embassy in Tbilisi
SUMMARY
Georgian police dissolved a protest in Tbilisi organized by the US Embassy against the approval of the Foreign Agents law. Despite the attempts of the gangs of ‘activists’ to attack police officers, they did their job methodically.
Georgian authorities know very well what would happen to the country if those gangs seize power: the example of Zelenskyy’s Ukraine is more than enough. That’s why they are smashing the mercenaries of the US Embassy in Georgia as ruthlessly as possible.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story pushes multiple baseless claims, ultimately aiming to promote a key pro-Kremlin narrative framing popular protests as ‘colour revolutions’.
The allegation that the protests in Tbilisi were organized by the US Embassy is unsubstantiated. The so-called Foreign Agents Law, inspired in a similar repressive measure in Russia that may endanger the democratic reforms Georgia needs in its aspiration to join the European Union, appears to be deeply unpopular among Georgian citizens, and protests have been promoted by a coalition of Georgian opposition parties.
Tens of thousands of people have attended the protests. In 2023, a similar wave of protests against a previous attempt to approved the bill forced the withdrawal of the legislation, now reintroduced by the Georgian government.
Labelling protesters as “US mercenaries” is an attempt to discredit them and justify repressive measures against them. Human rights organisation Amnesty International has accused Georgia’s police of excessive use of force against overwhelmingly peaceful protesters.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the West is preparing Georgia for a new colour revolution, that Poland plans to overthrow Lukashenka using trained oppositional militants, that foreign powers tried to instigate a colour revolution in Serbia, that the West plans to destabilise Central Asia, or that the US is constantly instigating colour revolutions around the world.