Pro-GD Media Claims UK Trains Georgian Activists in Lithuania Ahead of Elections
Pro-Georgian Dream government media claims the United Kingdom is training Georgian activists in Lithuania ahead of local elections scheduled for October 4, in what ruling party officials have described as another revolutionary plot to oust the GD government.
Prime Time, an online outlet, first reported the claim on August 18, less than two months before the planned partially boycotted municipal vote in Georgia, alleging that two NGOs are recruiting opposition-leaning citizens for alleged training abroad, which it described as preparing for potential protest scenarios at home.
“In Lithuania, Georgian activists are taught protest rally tactics, provocations, and documenting the ‘unparalleled toughness’ of law enforcement officers; self-defense in case of detention, and popularizing information campaigns, with an emphasis on creating so-called viral content and targeted materials spread through Telegram,” Prime Time reported, citing a cryptic source.
“The recruitment of participants for these trainings is carried out by the non-governmental organizations British-Georgian Society and the International Institute of Strategic Research, under the cover of student educational programs and cybersecurity courses,” the report added, noting that both organizations are headquartered in London.
GD members have seized on the report from the outlet, portraying the alleged trainings as part of foreign efforts to oust Georgia’s government.
“The aim […] is to carry out unrest in Georgia and change the government,” GD parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze told journalists, adding that after Georgia adopted the laws that he said ensured transparency of funds, “they prefer to dispatch these funds and trainers to other countries and in this way attempt once again to change the government.” The efforts, he said, are “doomed for failure.”
Kakha Kaladze, Tbilisi Mayor seeking a third term as a Georgian Dream candidate, said the alleged trainings represent another attempt at the revolution in Georgia.
“Over the past years, we have seen many such attempts and how they have fought against Georgia’s statehood, Georgia’s current government, because we have not pursued the interests of other countries,” Kaladze said, echoing “Global War Party/Deep State conspiracy theory and noting that the GD government faces the fight “because we have defended our country’s interests.”
It is not the first time the GD authorities have accused foreign countries or funds of attempting revolutions in Georgia. In 2023, Georgia’s security service claimed that the USAID-funded trainers were plotting to foment unrest in Georgia.
The latest claims against the U.K., which the GD says is under the “deep state” control like most other Western countries, have aligned with claims from Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service in early June that London intends to remove the GD government from power.
In mid-June, the British Embassy in Georgia rejected GD government accusations as if it was funding “propaganda and extremism” in the country through its support of local CSOs, including pre-election initiatives. GD members’ accusations against the British Embassy came after the Embassy had canceled planned grants for several civil society and media groups, citing procedural “uncertainty” stemming from the newly adopted law on grants at the time. The grants were intended to support “transparency and competitiveness” in Georgia’s upcoming local elections.
The British Embassy has repeatedly called on the Georgian Dream to invite the OSCE/ODIHR monitoring mission for the local elections, which the GD is not doing for the first time since it came to power.
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