Expert: West aiming for coup d'état in Georgia

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili’s mandate is ending on December 29th, but she has no intention to leave her office and cede power to the newly elected Mikheil Kavelashvili, and the West supports her in that. Talking to Alfa Radio, Belarusian MP Aleksandr Shpakovsky called the events in Georgia an attempted coup d'état that uses hybrid political technologies.


The Georgian authorities, according to Mr. Shpakovsky, have been able to hold steady so far and not fall for any provocations,

“They are quite stable, they have popular support, and law enforcement services are loyal to the legitimate government. If they manage to hold the course, the attempted ‘colour revolution’ in Georgia is bound to fail."

But there are, according to the expert, also some worrying factors they were wrong to ignore.

“For instance, they should have barred emissaries from Europe and Ukraine from entering the country. They don’t come to just mull around the rallies and take some pictures. They are addressing the crowd, co-ordinating things, maybe bringing money. Cash is still popular, although there are other means of payment. But bank accounts can be blocked, crypto conversion to fiat denied, while cash is always cash,” he explained.
 
Talking about Belarus, Mr. Shpakovsky said that in three decades, we managed to develop certain methods for handling ‘colour revolutions’.

“There are multiple components to that. First, the legitimate government must have broad popular support. Second, charges must be brought against all rabble-rousers, lawbreakers, riot organisers, all of them should be criminally prosecuted immediately. No sympathy for them! Third, you must have international support. In our case, we had backing from two superpowers: Russia and China. We see some of those components in Georgia, but in other matters they are going their own way. Let’s hope the Georgian authorities have it in them to overcome that challenge. It’s plainly obvious that the rioters lack broad support. They don’t have the force to overthrow the government using the street. So that’s why they sort of keep wandering around Tbilisi, destabilising things, disturbing the peace, scaring foreign investors away, and causing tangible harm to the economy,” elaborated the MP.

Some European countries’ behaviour towards Georgia is a marker in itself, Mr. Shpakovsky believes.

“Who was the first to react? The US ‘chihuahuas’ known as the Baltic States. Zelenskyy also couldn’t refrain from offering his valuable opinion. Just like in 2020, when they were ‘barking’ against the Republic of Belarus the loudest. They are no closer to Georgia then to the moon, but they were still the first to impose sanctions. The ‘old’ Europe behaves differently. They say they don’t like the election results, but still insist on a compromise. And none of them, as far as I’m aware, made any claims of election fraud,” he concluded.