TBILISI: Several thousand Georgians protested in Tbilisi on Monday over alleged election rigging by the governing party and Russian interference in last month’s parliament election, which the opposition denounced as “stolen.”
The pro-Western opposition has refused to recognize the ruling Georgian Dream party’s win in the October 26 election or to enter the newly elected parliament, which it calls “illegitimate.”
The European Union and the United States blasted “irregularities” in the vote, while Georgian Dream’s opponents have accused it of putting the Caucasus country on a pro-Kremlin track.
Protesters gathered outside Georgia’s parliament on Monday evening, blocking traffic on Tbilisi’s main road, after opposition groups called on supporters to take to the streets.
“The Georgian people will never accept falsified election results, an invincible protest movement is rising up and it will sweep away the regime, which has stolen our votes,” the leader of the Akhali party, Nika Melia, told the crowd.
He vowed daily protests, with the next rally set for Tuesday.
Mamuka Khazaradze, leader of the Coalition for Change, said: “We demand a fresh vote, an international investigation into election falsification, and we will not surrender until our objectives are met.”
President Salome Zurabishvili — who is at loggerheads with the governing party — also called the vote “illegitimate” and accused Russia of interference.
Moscow has denied meddling.
“We have no choice but to take to the streets every day to show our government and the world that Georgians will never put up with rigged elections,” one of the demonstrators, 25-year-old shop assistant Lidia Kirtadze, told AFP.
Protesters have accused Georgian Dream of derailing the country’s goal of joining the European Union.
“Russia and its stooges in our government want to steal not only the choice of the Georgian people but also our European future,” said Leo Grigalashvili, a 49-year-old winemaker.
“We will never accept this.”
Ahead of the election, Brussels had warned it would determine Georgia’s chances of joining the bloc.
“The situation following the elections remains concerning,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told Zurabishvili during a phone call on Monday.
“If Georgia wants to keep a strategic orientation toward the EU, we need concrete actions from the leadership,” she said on X.
On Monday, a court in Georgia’s southern town of Tetritskaro ordered the annulment of election results from several precincts over violations of ballot secrecy.
Georgian rights groups said the ruling sets an important judicial precedent as the same violation had been observed at around 70 percent of polling stations.
A group of Georgia’s leading election monitors said earlier that they had uncovered evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud that swayed results in favor of Georgian Dream.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the alleged fraud.
Monday’s protest came after tens of thousands gathered in a demonstration in the capital city last week.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said the elections were “entirely fair.”
But critics have blamed his increasingly conservative Georgian Dream for bringing Tbilisi back into Moscow’s orbit.
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Thousands protest alleged election fraud in Georgia
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Thousands protest alleged election fraud in Georgia
- Protesters have accused Georgian Dream of derailing the country’s goal of joining the European Union
US warned Ukraine not to hit US interests in strikes on Russia energy infrastructure, envoy says
- State Department demarche came after strike on Russian port
- Ukraine does not feel abandoned by US, envoy says
WASHINGTON: The US State Department told the Ukrainian government to refrain from hitting US interests following a Ukrainian attack on the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, Kyiv’s ambassador to Washington said on Tuesday. Ambassador Olha Stefanishyna described the message as a demarche, a formal, official message, but declined to elaborate on how it was received and whether she was summoned by the State Department. She said Ukraine had taken note of the communication.
The State Department declined to comment.
Stefanishyna, speaking on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, said the State Department reached out after Ukraine’s attack on Novorossiysk “because it affected American (and) Kazakh economic interest.” Most of Kazakhstan’s oil is sent to Novorossiysk for export. The port halted its November oil exports briefly on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Stefanishyna said the message focused on strikes affecting US interests, not halting attacks on Russian infrastructure.
“This reach-out was not related to encouraging Ukraine from refraining to attack Russian military and energy infrastructure. It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” she said.
She said the incident made clear that Ukraine had failed to establish similarly close economic ties with the US in the decades since its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and she was determined to change that. Her job as ambassador was focused on working with the US to achieve a peace deal, as well as ensuring that Kyiv built sustainable and long-lasting American economic interests in Ukraine, she said, adding this would provide her country with one of the most powerful security guarantees.
Two days of peace talks in Geneva between Ukraine and Russia last week have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Not feeling abandoned
Stefanishyna, who later attended President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in Congress, said her country was grateful for Trump’s personal engagement on ending the war and does not feel abandoned by Washington, despite the failure to reach a ceasefire and his decision to scale back military support. The ambassador, who served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration before going to Washington, urged Congress to pass a comprehensive sanctions bill that would lay the groundwork for further sanctions against Russia, after last year’s moves to designate Russia’s two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft. She said Ukraine was working closely with US lawmakers on the legislation, predicting that it would have overwhelming bipartisan support once introduced, and that she expected Trump to sign it once it passed.
“So it should be either passed now, or we will just have to recognize that there’s no will to do it,” she said.
Ukraine was also working with the US government on new ways to deprive Russia of revenue to fund the war, but declined to give details.
“There’s a number of engagements which are ongoing,” she said. “What I can say is that we have not been abandoned by the US government.”
Stefanishyna said she expected Trump’s address to Congress to touch on foreign affairs and ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The State Department declined to comment.
Stefanishyna, speaking on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, said the State Department reached out after Ukraine’s attack on Novorossiysk “because it affected American (and) Kazakh economic interest.” Most of Kazakhstan’s oil is sent to Novorossiysk for export. The port halted its November oil exports briefly on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Stefanishyna said the message focused on strikes affecting US interests, not halting attacks on Russian infrastructure.
“This reach-out was not related to encouraging Ukraine from refraining to attack Russian military and energy infrastructure. It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” she said.
She said the incident made clear that Ukraine had failed to establish similarly close economic ties with the US in the decades since its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and she was determined to change that. Her job as ambassador was focused on working with the US to achieve a peace deal, as well as ensuring that Kyiv built sustainable and long-lasting American economic interests in Ukraine, she said, adding this would provide her country with one of the most powerful security guarantees.
Two days of peace talks in Geneva between Ukraine and Russia last week have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Not feeling abandoned
Stefanishyna, who later attended President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in Congress, said her country was grateful for Trump’s personal engagement on ending the war and does not feel abandoned by Washington, despite the failure to reach a ceasefire and his decision to scale back military support. The ambassador, who served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration before going to Washington, urged Congress to pass a comprehensive sanctions bill that would lay the groundwork for further sanctions against Russia, after last year’s moves to designate Russia’s two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft. She said Ukraine was working closely with US lawmakers on the legislation, predicting that it would have overwhelming bipartisan support once introduced, and that she expected Trump to sign it once it passed.
“So it should be either passed now, or we will just have to recognize that there’s no will to do it,” she said.
Ukraine was also working with the US government on new ways to deprive Russia of revenue to fund the war, but declined to give details.
“There’s a number of engagements which are ongoing,” she said. “What I can say is that we have not been abandoned by the US government.”
Stefanishyna said she expected Trump’s address to Congress to touch on foreign affairs and ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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