Former President Salome Zurabishvili has criticized Georgian authorities, claiming they are ‘openly protecting the Russian provocateurs’ involved in the violent confrontations with peaceful demonstrators on July 19.
As Zurabishvili put it, a member of the Special Tasks Department was allegedly caught assisting the pro-Russian attackers during the rally. She said this is a ‘clear proof’ that the state is not only failing to protect peaceful citizens, but is enabling violence for political purposes.
“The involvement of a Special Tasks officer shows that these actions are not isolated or spontaneous: this is a coordinated strategy to provoke unrest, silence dissent and sow division,” Zurabishvili said in a public statement.
She warned that the government’s use of intimidation tactics represents a deliberate attempt to destabilize the country before the elections, and called on both the public and international partners to remain alert to the rising threat of authoritarianism and foreign influence.
