Russia intelligence claims EU is funding Georgian demonstrators

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed that the EU is trying to intensify anti-government protests in Georgia, including by planning to fund the protesters  on a ‘daily’ basis.

The SVR claimed on Thursday that the EU cannot allow Georgia to ‘lose’ its status as an ‘important stronghold of Western influence in the Caucasus’, and that it intends to return the country to the ‘path of democratic European integration’ at any cost.

Citing inside information, the SVR claimed that ‘given the “national-conservative turn” taking place in the world, the EU has decided to move from liberal promises that are no longer in effect to political pressure in its work with Georgian politicians and society’.

Following the government's EU U-turn following the October election, Georgians across the country have held daily protests for more than 90 days. Human rights activists in Georgia have suggested that more than 400 demonstrators may have been detained during November and December alone — a large number of whom claim that they were subjected to physical or psychological abuse by law enforcement officers.

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In Thursday’s statement, the SVR accused the EU delegation to Georgia of allocating resources to coordinate the demonstrations, claiming that ‘each participant in the anti-government protests is scheduled to be paid up to €120 ($125) per day of “work” ’.

The SVR claimed that the EU is also working on the option to deliver funds from EU embassies in Armenia to Tbilisi if the Georgian authorities try to block ‘channels of financing subversive activities’.

The intelligence agency also alleged that the EU is working to ‘form anti-government sentiments among the most dynamic part of local youth’ including bloggers, journalists, and IT specialists, as well as ‘their colleagues from among Russian relocated people’.

‘Brussels-controlled Georgian and European media and NGOs are focused on “brainwashing” this focus group with tales about the “benefits of cooperation with “united Europe” and the dead-end nature of the pro-Russian policy vector chosen by the Georgian Dream’, the statement read.

‘Within the framework of the EU programme Georgian Youth for Europe, young Georgians will be offered grants of up to €50,000 ($52,000) for the implementation of “progressive” projects. The main criterion for the allocation of funds is the loyalty of the authors to the West’.

The statement also said that EU officials ‘have been tasked’ with working more actively to unite the opposition Georgian parties United National Movement, Ahali, For Georgia, European Georgia, and Girchi — More Freedom.

‘They are called upon to form a “united fist” directed against the ruling Georgian Dream’, the statement read.

‘It seems that not only citizens of Georgia need to know about the “shadow” side of the EU’s activity in the Transcaucasus, especially since they have already given a clear and decisive response to European encroachments on the sovereignty of their country’.

The EU Ambassador in Georgia, Paweł Herczyński, said on Friday that these accusations ‘are lies’.

‘These are obviously completely baseless accusations and simple lies’, he said.

‘I don’t know what objectives Russian propaganda has [in] disseminating such lies, but I can clearly state that these are outrageous lies that have nothing to do with reality’.

In July 2024, the SVR claimed that the US was planning a change of government in Georgia.

According to the intelligence agency, the administration of former US President Joe Biden had developed a large-scale information campaign to discredit the ruling Georgian Dream party.

‘Washington, through the mouth of [fifth Georgian President Salome] Zourabichvili, intends to prepare voters for “some political surprise from the Georgian Dream side of the opposition”, which could ultimately turn out to be another “color revolution”’, the statement claimed.

Georgian Dream and its satellites in parliament have repeatedly accused Herczyński of campaigning in favor of the opposition, stating that he is acting on behalf of the so-called Deep State.

The term Deep State, which is frequently used to describe groups made up of different organisations or agencies that secretly manipulate governments, settled in the Georgian Dream’s dictionary relatively recently. In December last year, the ruling party specifically blamed the Deep State for the conflicts and civil unrest that have occurred worldwide in the past few years.

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