Iraikli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said Georgia was a “sovereign, independent” state where the Government would ensure “peace and tranquillity” and “not allow either a revolution or [an opening of] a second front [amid the war in Ukraine]”, agenda.ge reports.
Kobakhidze’s comment followed the Georgian State Security Service on Monday claiming “top managerial representatives” from the Belgrade-based Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies had been invited to Georgia by the East-West Management Institute of the United States Agency for International Development programme last month to “train domestic civil groups and individuals for a planned unrest” in Tbilisi this fall.
[I]t can be said unequivocally that the Government will not allow [revolutionary processes]. Georgia is a sovereign, independent state, and we will ensure peace and tranquillity in our country, and we will not let anyone disturb this country - we will not allow either a revolution or a second front”, Kobakhidze said.
The official said the state body’s indication of the role of the USAID in the funding of the alleged trainings was “even more troubling”.
I watched the briefing of the State Security Service. You remember that at first these people tried to hide the real purpose of their visit [to the country]. They talked about the fact that they supposedly had meetings and trainings with representatives of the cultural sphere, but it turned out that their goal was to prepare and plan revolutionary processes in our country, which is troubling”, Kobakhidze said.
“It's all the more troubling when it turns out that all this has been funded by the United States Agency for International Development, which is called USAID, which stands for ‘America's Aid’. I think this is not America's help”, he continued.
The ruling party head added the Georgian authorities would “need clarifications” on USAID’s funding of the trainings, the “direct purpose” of which he said was to “prepare for a revolution in Georgia”.
The Service’s statement followed the agency’s claims last month, in which it said it had uncovered a plan by former officials of the previous United National Movement Government to cause “civil unrest” and overthrow the country’s Government using a “Euromaidan scenario” in November and December, through use of public fallout of the potentially negative decision by the European Union bodies on granting Georgia the bloc’s membership candidate status later this year.
