Georgian Parliament Speaker claims October 4 coup in Tbilisi “masterminded, funded, engineered” from abroad

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalava Papuashvili on Wednesday said the October 4 coup in Tbilisi was “masterminded, funded, and engineered” from abroad.

In a social media message, Papuashvili noted that the coup attempt was carried out by the local radicals, giving their masterminds an opportunity for plausible deniability, so that “they avoid responsibility by ensuring there's no definitive evidence of their involvement in the action, thus enabling them to deny any connection”.

“The October 4 coup in Tbilisi was masterminded, funded, and engineered from abroad. It was carried out by the local radicals, giving their masterminds an opportunity for plausible deniability - so that they avoid responsibility by ensuring there's no definitive evidence of their involvement in the action, thus enabling them to deny any connection”, the Speaker said.

“For decades, the Western world was trying to shield off the hybrid attacks, known as active measures, from the Soviet Union. They now claim these extraordinary efforts have been remastered and redeployed by today’s Russia. The irony is, some of the same Western actors conduct similar political warfare, most obviously against the Georgian state”, he continued.

He further emphasised that the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention were “sacrosanct” by international law, adding that Georgians knew first-hand the bitterness of violation of these principles, as part of the country was militarily occupied by Russia.

Papuashvili also stressed that Georgians also learned to discern the tacit violation of sovereignty and interference with domestic affairs too.

“Unfortunately, such measures increasingly remind us of the re-imagined Soviet hybrid political warfare. In the last four years, continuous covert foreign attempts to depose Georgia’s democratically elected Government use plausible deniability as a major tool. When MPs of foreign parliaments, Members of European Parliament, foreign government-funded NGOs, foreign-government affiliated experts or journalists attack the Georgian authorities, encourage local radicals to depose the elected Government, or facilitate foreign funding for domestic upheaval, we find out that nobody takes responsibility for their actions. Respective embassies deny their involvement, telling us that MEP Rasa Juknevičienė does not represent Lithuania, or that funding of the radical paramilitary group Shame Movement comes from the European Endowment for Democracy, which falls under nobody’s formal jurisdiction”, he continued.

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The Speaker also recalled the fact that on Saturday, when the mob started attacking the presidential palace in Tbilisi, numerous foreign politicians, allied with the radical opposition in Georgia, suddenly started posting incendiary messages on international media platforms for, ostensibly, supporting the Georgian people’s fight for democracy and freedom.

Papuashvili assessed the move as a well coordinated PR campaign, adding that if one tried to find a sovereign agency responsible for these statements, one would never find one as foreign governments could always rely on plausible deniability for washing their hands.

“Some foreign leaders, however, did not show so much foresight. As the violence reached its peak and the mob invaded the presidential palace in Tbilisi, Moldovan President Maia Sandu wrote on X: “My thoughts are with the people of Georgia, who stand for freedom and their European future. Democracy cannot be silenced. Moldova is by your side”. Thus, Maia Sandu expressed her support for those storming the presidential palace. This statement looks particularly strange from a politician who, only two weeks ago, was sounding the alarm about the foreign intention to depose her. However, the fact is that on October 4, she found herself directly involved in supporting the coup in Georgia. Whether she opted to make this statement on her own or was asked to do so, is a different matter”, he noted.

Papuashvili stressed that “luckily, after years of this shameful and very harmful hypocrisy, Georgian people have learned to discern the machinations behind the benevolent support, and have little, if any, trust towards the frenemies of Georgia”.