DISINFO: Ukrainian-trained snipers head to Georgia to organise provocations
SUMMARY
Western countries do not shun anything in their attempts to sway the internal political situation in Georgia after the October 26 elections and provoke another 'colour revolution': snipers trained in Ukraine are arriving in the republic to organise provocations during mass protests, according to sources in the region familiar with the matter.
RESPONSE
No evidence is provided to back the claim, which can be considered part of Russia’s attempt to shape the information environment regarding Georgia’s electoral crisis after Parliamentary elections on Saturday 26 October 2024 (see the Joint Statement by the High Representative Josep Borrell and the European Commission here).
On Monday 28 October, Georgians joined a mass rally as the president urged a protest at the 'rigged vote' (see more here).
The trope of "foreign snipers" is a manipulative element previously used in pro-Kremlin disinformation campaigns. It originated in the context of the Maidan protests in Ukraine in 2013-2014, that the Kremlin sought to portray as as a Western-backed coup. After snipers fired against Ukrainian protesters in Kyiv on 20 February 2014, leading president Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country, Russian officials and pro-Kremlin outlets started pushing the false message that the massacre had been a Ukrainian false flag operation, that used snipers to increase tensions. Russia’s disinformation operation included the leak of phone calls between EU officials taken out of context, and also claimed that the snipers were Georgian, an allegation that has been since debunked. Images taken at the scene and 3D models pointed to shooters among pro-Yanukovych police forces as responsible for at least most of the killings.
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.
Mythdetector also debunked the claim of Ukrainian snipers, (English version to follow).
Read also EUvsDisinfo's articles on "Twists and turns: Georgian Dream rhetoric on the EU", “Georgia: Resilience in action” and “Georgia: The next colour revolution?”.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives about Georgia here.