Georgia: Kremlin Rejects 'Election Interference' Charges As Tens Of Thousands Take To Streets
Russia has blasted widespread allegations that it interfered in this past weekend's parliamentary elections in Georgia. Instead, the Kremlin has turned the same accusation on the West.
"We strongly reject these accusations. There was no intervention. These accusations are completely unsubstantiated," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
"There are attempts to interfere, but not from Russia’s side," Peskov emphasized. "A huge number of forces from European countries and various European institutions have tried to influence the outcome of the vote. No one was even hiding this, these were public statements."
As we reviewed earlier:
In Georgia, the biggest ruling (and Kremlin-friendly) party Georgian Dream won 54% of the votes, according to the election commission. Its leader declared victory whilst the Georgian President, who is a supporter of greater EU-ties but lacks political power, called it a “Russian-style election”. At face value, it seems that Europe should not expect much rapprochement from the country any time soon.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili is actually calling on the West to support protests against the Georgian Dream party.
The opposition led by the United National Movement (UNM) is refusing to concede defeat, and officials in Washington and Brussels appear to be stoking anger - now spilling into the streets - claiming that "irregularities" in the election require an immediate and independent investigation.
And it hasn't taken long for Western press to echo the accusations of Moscow's interference. The Guardian issued a new headline saying that "In Georgia, Russia has just scored another victory against liberal democracy."
🇬🇪Maidan2.0…
— Anna (@provemewrong411) October 28, 2024
Make no mistake, not a single European leader thinks that Georgia is part of Europe or should be a member of the EU. These sponsored protests are not organic and are not supported by 80% of the country. So what’s so special about Georgia? Well, this attempt of… pic.twitter.com/h7dSIyFU7s
All of this has been a huge victory for pro-Russian billionaire backer of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili. The Guardian has issued a litany of his and the party's offenses as follows:
Even citizens already disillusioned with Ivanishvili were shocked when the government chose to side openly with Moscow against Kyiv in 2022. Ukraine had stood by Georgia through all of its wars, including the most recent Russian invasion in 2008. The government’s position felt like a betrayal.
In the ensuing years, GD has passed repressive Russian-style laws, launching brutal crackdowns on activists, targeting the LGBTQ+ community and unleashing dirty disinformation campaigns straight out of the Kremlin playbook. By 2024, hundreds of thousands were taking part in regular anti-government demonstrations led by the youth demanding that Georgia stay on its European course.
The election was seen as the only democratic way of getting the country out of Ivanishvili’s and Russia’s tightening embrace – it was perhaps the most pivotal vote in the country’s history since the independence referendum in 1991. Polls, including traditionally reliable exit polls, put the opposition in a clear lead. On the day of the vote, the turnout was so high that in some polling stations people queued for hours to cast their ballots.
The same report cites a pro-EU organization to claim that ahead of and during the vote there was "intimidation, coercion and pressure on voters" as well as claims of ballot stuffing. However, what is lacking is any kind of definitive, bombshell proof. Instead all of this is likely to lead to more outrage and mayhem in the streets as Georgian Dream is given another mandate.
Tens of thousands of protesters have filled up Tbilisi's central squares overnight...
president of georgia called on citizens to protest the disputed election results to save the country’s “european future”
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 28, 2024
and the people of georgia delivered: pic.twitter.com/B8ad3AD9AW
The West has had its eye on tiny Georgia after its parliament this summer passed a bill on foreign agents. The legislation requires any foreign group receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to formally register as "agents of foreign influence". Washington and Europe were outraged at the bill, which ironically looks much like similar laws in the US. Except in this case, US and EU-funded NGOs now have a harder time operating covertly inside Georgia.