Post-Soviet country Georgia shifting from pro-Western path, according to US, EU

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, facing condemnation from the United States and defiance from his own president, on Sunday accused protesters of acting on foreign orders to weaken the country. He praised the police for cracking down.

Georgia, a country of 3.7 million people that was once part of the Soviet Union, has been in crisis since the ruling Georgian Dream party announced on Thursday that it would halt European Union accession negotiations for the next four years.

The EU and the US are alarmed by what they see as Georgia's departure from a pro-Western path and back into Russia's orbit. Large-scale anti-government protests have been held in the capital Tbilisi over the past three nights, with police firing water cannons and tear gas into crowds.

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Further protests were planned for Sunday night in Tbilisi, and local media reported demonstrations taking place in towns and cities across the country.

Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that an attempted revolution is occurring in Georgia. The former Russian president said on Telegram that Georgia is “quickly moving along the path of Ukraine and falling into a dark abyss. Usually, this kind of situation ends in a very bad way.”

Mr. Medvedev was once seen as a modernizing reformer, but since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has reinvented himself as an aggressive hawk, often issuing harsh warnings to supporters in Kiev and the West.

The Kremlin has not yet commented on recent events in Georgia, but has long accused the West of fomenting revolution in the former Soviet state, which Moscow still considers part of its sphere of influence.

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“Foreign lecturer”

Georgian Prime Minister Kobakhidze dismissed US criticism of the “excessive use of force” against demonstrators.

“Yesterday, despite the most intense and organized violence by violent groups and their foreign leaders, the police conducted themselves to a higher standard than their American and European counterparts, and committed new attempts to violate the constitutional order,” he said at a press conference. “We succeeded in protecting the country from this.” without providing any evidence of foreign involvement.

Kobakhidze also ignored Washington's announcement on Saturday to suspend strategic partnership with Georgia. He said this was a “temporary event” and that Georgia would consult with President-elect Donald Trump's new administration, which took office in January.

As the country's constitutional crisis deepens, outgoing President Salome Zurabichvili, a government critic and strong advocate of Georgia's membership in the European Union, said on Saturday that she would refuse to step down when her term expires at the end of this month.

Zurabichvili said he would remain prime minister because the new parliament elected in October in an election that opposition parties say was rigged was illegitimate and does not have the power to name a successor.

Mr Kobakhidze said he understood Mr Zurabichvili's “emotional state”.

“But of course, on December 29th, she will have to leave the mansion and hand over this building to the legitimately elected president,” he said.

Georgian Dream has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former soccer star with a history of strong anti-Western rhetoric, as its presidential candidate. The head of state will be elected on December 14 by an electoral college made up of parliamentarians and local government representatives.

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“Foreign Agent”

For most of the period since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia has tilted strongly toward the West and sought to weaken the influence of Russia, which lost a brief war in 2008. Eventually, the country was promised membership in NATO and became a member state. It was an official candidate for EU membership last year.

But domestic opposition parties and Western governments have grown wary of what they see as the Georgian Dream government's increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies.

In June, it enacted a law requiring NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. In September parliament approved a law restricting LGBT rights.

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The government insists it is acting to protect the country from foreign interference and avoid suffering Ukraine's fate in a new war with Russia.

The EU's new foreign policy chief, Kaja Callas, expressed solidarity with the protesters on Sunday.

“We support the Georgian people and their choice for the future of Europe,” she posted on X.

“We condemn the violence against demonstrators and deplore the signal given by the ruling party not to pursue Georgia's path to the EU and the backsliding of democracy in the country. I will give it.”