Explainer | What is the “Anti-Maidan Movement”?

01/11/2023 - 01:31

The ultra-conservative, anti-Western, openly pro-Russian, and anti-liberal Conservative Movement / Alt-Info is spinning the new project, which uses particularly violent and dehumanizing language against civic and pro-European groups. At least in one case, their meeting was hosted by a state-funded entity. Framed as “Anti-Maidan,” the project is designed to vilify civic protest and amplify the officially-backed conspiracy theory about the Western/liberal forces pushing Georgia toward war. The organizers announced plans to mobilize vigilante groups.

The Context

The leaders of the “Conservative Movement / Alt-Info,” Zurab Makharadze, Giorgi Kardava, Irakli Martinenko, and Shota Martinenko announced the launch of the “Anti-Maidan” Movement on September 25. They were building on the media momentum created by the September 18 “trainings revolution” allegation by the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG), which said a “plot to overthrow the government by force” was put into motion by a “certain group of people inside and outside the country” who underwent US-funded training. The Security Service stated that the alleged conspirators were planning to change the government based “on the model of the “Euromaidan” events that took place in Ukraine” in 2014, referring to the public protest against Viktor Yanukovich’s U-turn on EU aspirations.

The Intent

Alt-info’s essentially said they intended to organize anti-liberal and anti-European vigilante groups. Shota Martinenko announced they mobilize “like-minded people throughout Georgia” who “do not want to share Ukraine’s fate.” “We must organize cohesive groups… you may call them what you want…we are creating the fellow units in all the regions [of the country],” he said.

The Actions and the Rhetoric: “We will finish you off!”

As part of the “anti-Maidan movement,” Alt-Info has already held meetings in five Georgian cities, spreading the anti-EU, anti-Western, and anti-liberal narrative and gradually cultivating the support base. The local NGO, the Democracy Research Institute/DRI, has been monitoring Alt-Info’s activities, including the group’s recent meetings in Telavi, Rustavi, Gori, and Mtskheta. The Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI), a watchdog, issued a statement calling on the government to “cease providing gathering and working space” to violent groups.

October 1, meeting in Telavi: Alt-Info announced its intent to participate in the 2024 Parliamentary Elections. Alt-Info rented the Telavi Vazha-Pshavela State Drama Theatre for the meeting. It is a state-funded entity, led since 2012 by Paata Guliashvili, a known activist who campaigned for Salome Zurabishvili’s election on behalf of the ruling Georgian Dream. According to the Governance Monitoring Center, Guliashvili has received state contracts worth GEL 77,309 under simplified procurement rules since 2019.
October 7, meeting in Rustavi: At the meeting, the radical activists focused on a “trainings revolution” conspiracy. They echoed the GD conspiracy theory about the foreign and domestic actors wanting the “second front” to “drag Georgia into the war.” “We are confronting the West. They are organizing a coup so that their agents can seize power and drag our country into the war,” said Irakli Martinenko. Another leader, Zurab Makharadze, addressed the group’s supporters: “When we gather people from all over Georgia, the first thing you should be aware of the following threat – we will be facing several hundred trained sonders [applying the moniker referring to Nazi sonderkommando extermination groups to the civic activists – eds.]… We should mess them up so much that this [attempt at revolution] never repeats in any town of Georgia.” “They must disappear,” he concluded.
October 14, meeting in Gori: Makharadze said: “If anyone is afraid, we have only one thing to say to them. Stay the hell at home… If you come out and start burning, destroying, and dragging this country into war, then we will also come out, and we will finish you off!”
October 21, a “consultative conference of “Anti-Maidan” in Mtskheta: a “consultative conference” was held in Mtskheta with “political scientists and experts,” said Alt-Info. The veteran of violent attacks against civic and minority groups, Konstantin (Kote) Morgoshia attended. Shota Martinenko, said, the aim was to form a “political and ideological platform,” which “will serve as a counterweight to the liberal agenda.”
October 29, Anti-Maidan Movement meeting in Kutaisi

In response to demands from the CSOs pointing to violent rhetoric, Zurab Makharadze and other members of Alt-Info were summoned for informal questioning by the police. Before meeting the police, Makharadze demanded that the Interior Ministry “provide Alt-Info with additional information on why the coup plotters have not yet been arrested” and threatened opponents with reprisals.

Who are Alt-Info: From the Media to the Political Party

According to the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, Alt-Info “constantly attacks Western values, as well as the LGBQ community in Georgia.” The group is notorious for its homophobic and xenophobic rhetoric and actions. Alt-Info media actively shares articles that present the West as an unstable and violent place.

What is Alt-info known for?

– As a media outlet, Alt-Info was founded in January 2019, by Shota Martinenko and Tsiala Morgoshia, both owning equal stakes (50/50%) in the company. On November 26, 2020, Alt-Info media was granted with an authorization by the Georgian National Communications Commission.

– Tbilisi Pride 2021: The group came to notoriety in 2021 after spearheading the July 5 pogrom of the Tbilisi Pride that left more than 50 journalists injured, including cameraman Aleksandre Lashkarava, who died a few days later.

– Morphing into “Conservative Movement”: on November 20, 2021, the leaders of Alt-Info inaugurated a new political party, the “Conservative Movement.” The leaders of the political party are the same as those of Alt-Info: Konstantine Morgoshia, Zurab Makharadze, Giorgi Kardava, Irakli Martinenko, Irakli Morgoshia. The National Agency of Public Registry registered the party on December 7, 2021. On April 11, 2022, the name was changed to “Conservative Movement/Alt-Info.”

– Tbilisi Pride 2022: One of the leaders of Alt-Info, Konstantine Morgoshia, vowed to disrupt the Pride Fest in 2022. The police arrested 26 far-right party members just a day before the Pride’s queer music festival, which was held indoors.

06/07/2022 – President Slams Gov’t Inaction Over Russia-friendly Far-right

– Burning of the EU flag: On March 14, 2023, the members of the “Conservative Movement” took down, tore, and burnt the EU flag in front of the Parliament. One of their demands was to hold a referendum on the “foreign agents” law, which they wholeheartedly supported.

– Tbilisi Pride 2023: On July 8, 2023, the ultra-conservative groups, led by members of Alt-Info, stormed the Pride Fest venue, vandalized installations, and burnt and tore down the LGBTQ+ flags and festival banners. The leader of the “Conservative Movement,” Zurab Makharadze, said it was “a victory.” On that day, the police failed to keep the promise to ensure the safety of the Pride celebration.

What Comes Next?

The Georgian Dream administration has repeatedly mobilized radically anti-European, pro-Russian, nativist, and violent groups before and during the election campaigns. Different leaders and forces took the role at different times: Irma Inashvili, from the Alliance of Patriots, entered the Parliament with GDs tacit support and even got the post of vice-speaker. Levan Vasadze, the nativist businessman, tried – and ultimately failed – to consolidate the extremist wing in 2021.

02/06/2021 – Levan Vasadze’s Quest to Consolidate Georgia’s Extreme Right

Some reports shed light on linkages of such groups with Moscow. The Alliance of Patriots was particularly strongly mired in controversy after the Dossier Center – an investigative watchdog by Mikhail Khodorkovski – alleged a Russian foreign intelligence general directly directed its hand from the Kremlin. Alt-Info and Zurab Makharadze never hid their ties with or trips to Moscow. Yet, at the outset of Russia’s renewed aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Makharadze spoke about leaving politics due to “personal reasons” and allegedly left for Russia. The Conservative Party’s local offices, opened only months prior, have closed down in Georgia’s provincial towns starting in spring 2022. Yet, the party bounced back in 2023 and is now stepping into the limelight.

The radical groups habitually served an electoral function of portraying GD as a reasonable – even if at times intransigent – force against ultra-nationalist and violent groups. Their overheated rhetoric previously served as the decoy from GD’s Western-skeptic narratives. At the same time, these groups harass GD’s traditional opponents – the opposition parties, such as the United National Movement and civic activists – and mobilize GD’s radical fringe.

This time, the Alt-Info’s raise to prominence takes place in the context of Georgian Dream’s openly hostile attitude towards many Western partners and institutions, as well as dogged efforts to limit civic and critical space ahead of 2024 elections.

Also Read: