Kremlin compares Georgia protests to Maidan coup

The anti-government protests currently taking place in Georgia are comparable to the 2014 Western-backed Maidan coup in Ukraine and exhibit all the signs of an attempted “orange revolution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.

Tbilisi has been rocked by anti-government, pro-EU protests since Thursday, following an announcement by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze that he would freeze accession talks with the bloc until 2028. He cited Brussels’ “constant blackmail and manipulation” of Georgia’s domestic politics as the reason for the decision.

Demonstrators have since repeatedly clashed with law enforcement, shot fireworks, and thrown Molotov cocktails at riot police, who have deployed tear gas and water cannons in an effort to disperse the protesters. Over 250 people have reportedly been arrested.

Commenting on the events in Georgia, Peskov stated that “there is an obvious attempt to destabilize the situation” and that similar events have taken place in “a number of countries” in recent years.

“The most direct parallel that can be drawn is the events of the Maidan in Ukraine,” Peskov said, referring to the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 which ousted the country’s democratically-elected president and precipitated the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Peskov added that the anti-government protests in Georgia have “all the signs of an attempt to carry out an ‘orange revolution’.”

However, the spokesman stressed that “everything that happens in Georgia is Georgia’s internal affair.” He said that as the country’s authorities take measures to stabilize the situation, Moscow would not interfere.

Prime Minister Kobakhidze has slammed the rallies as an “attack on the constitutional order in the country” and blamed the civil unrest on “EU politicians and their agents.” He further accused the West of trying to orchestrate a coup similar to the US-backed Maidan revolution in Ukraine. 

Kobakhidze has insisted that “unlike Ukraine in 2013, Georgia is an independent state with strong institutions and, most importantly, experienced and wise people. The Maidan scenario cannot be realized in Georgia. Georgia is a sovereign state and will not allow this.”

Meanwhile, the US has responded to Georgia’s decision to freeze EU accession talks by suspending its strategic partnership with the country and condemning the move, claiming it is a “betrayal of the Georgian constitution.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has also stated that sanctions are being considered against Tbilisi for its crackdown on protesters.