If They Coup Georgia, They Can Coup The USA

EurasiaNote 99 - U.S. and EU double standards on Tbilisi's election

• Georgia's president sides with youth, NGOs, EU-U.S. to criticise election

• Hungary PM Viktor Orban visits Tbilisi - EU members condemn

• U.S. State Department warns of ‘consequences’

• False narrative: election was not about Russia vs West for vast majority of voters

• As in West, voters are more concerned about economy and stability

• Anyhow, membership of the EU and NATO is embedded in Georgia’s constitution

• Those who pull the strings prefer managed outcomes

• Americans will see the same playbook as Georgia in Nov 5 presidential contest

• Rows over voter ID, questioning results in advance, taking to the streets....

This is not just about Georgia. It is about Europe. See:
Europe's Parallel Reality: C02 And Degrowth - Turning nature into currency is a plan for a mercantile feudalism (May 09, 2024)
What Is This Europe That Georgia Would Join? (May 7, 2024)

Related:
Georgia Next In Brussel's Conquest- EurasiaNote 98:While waging cultural war, Europe has no definition (Oct 26, 2024)

(1,800 words or about 8 moments of your company.)

Tbilisi, Oct 29, 2024

Youth protest loudly on the streets of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The French-born diplomat, Salome Zourabichvili, who serves as Georgia's president has sided with them, after originally praising the election campaign.

Let's not pretend that it's only opposition parties trying to overturn the election in Georgia. EU foreign ministers have been on the streets of Tbilisi all year long.

In March foreign ministers of Latvia, Estonia, Iceland and Lithuania, on a "working visit" to Georgia, joined protesters on Rustaveli Avenue to protest against the “Transparency of Foreign Influence” law.

If you doubt the intent of these individuals, Lithuania's FM Gabrielius Landsbergis just called for European boots on the ground in Russia.

False narrative

The protests are an EU/NATO operation, with the assistance of U.S.-funded NGOs.

Whether they succeed or not depends on the commitment and money of the above to pressure the Georgian governmen, and secondly whether local authorities consider they can resist or buckle under the offer of silver or lead.

Just weeks before the election the U.S. and EU withheld about $200 million in combined aid and imposed travel restrictions on Georgian Dream officials. In March the EU suspended Georgia's EU membership process — a symbolic act since nothing was happening.

The Western press frames the election as pro- or anti-EU; either you're with us or your with Russia — few people see their world in those terms except perhaps students in a Facebook Metaverse.

Membership of the EU and NATO is embedded in Georgia’s constitution. The incumbent party of government, Georgian Dream, says it wants membership but the speed, and the decision to accept Georgia, is in Brussels’ hands, not Tbilisi’s.

As for president Zourabichvili, on election day, October 26 she said: "Georgia has shown democracy, europeanity and maturity … I am proud and confident in our European future!"

On Oct 27 she changed here tune: "I urge our international partners to protect Georgia by standing with the people, not an illegitimate government."

Heated rhetoric

Such facts get in the way of the rhetoric of the streets.

This does not suggest smooth sailing in the days ahead. Extremists were on the ground in Georgia during the elections. Hotheads could stage a happening to shape perceptions.

At least four people in fatigues with Ukrainian patches seen in the crowds outside Georgian parliament in Tbilisi.

Russian news agency TASS went so far as to say Ukraine-trained snipers are arriving in Georgia to stage provocations during mass protests, a regional official familiar with the situation told TASS.

"In their attempts to knock off balance the internal political situation in Georgia following the October 26 election and set off another color revolution, Westerners stop at nothing. Ukraine-trained snipers are arriving in the republic to organize provocations during mass protests," the person said.

Granted, that’s a Russian state news agency but Ukrainian nationalist politician Oleksiy Goncharenko was in Georgia, as a parliamentary election observer.

Goncharenko can hardly be considered unbiased. He has been connected to attacks on ethnic Russian Ukrainians. At least 50 rival protesters were burned to death in a trades union building in Odesa in 2014.

Yet he was among 60 political observers along side the 500-strong OSCE team.

As in Ukraine there are two dimensions: one on the ground, and the other exists only in the aether of the Internet — but it is the latter which the Western public is told, and according to which politicians act.