Russian Foreign Intelligence Chief Says Russia Wants to Prevent Color Revolution in Georgia

Following the SVR’s earlier claim that the U.S. is planning a “Tbilisi Maidan” after the October elections, Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin said on August 27 that Russia aims to prevent a “color revolution” in Georgia.

“The fact that the SVR made public the information that [we] have obtained and are obtaining about the hostile activities not only of Western intelligence services, but also of state bodies such as the US State Department – we are doing this to help prevent attempts to carry out a color revolution in Georgia,” Sergey Naryshkin told Russian state-controlled media TASS.

On August 26, TASS reported, citing Russian foreign intelligence sources, that the U.S. is planning a “Tbilisi Maidan” after Georgia’s parliamentary elections to prevent the ruling Georgian Dream from remaining in power. The SVR said it expects Georgian law enforcement to be “provoked” into “violently suppressing the protests,” which will lead to a “ruthless political and economic response” from the U.S. This is because the White House is “deeply dissatisfied” with how things are going on in Georgia, claimed SVR, and thus plans “Tbilisi Maidan” to “announce non-recognition of the election results and demand political change.”