Georgian PM rules out “Maidan taking place in Georgia” in response to Estonian counterpart

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday said “nobody will get to see a Maidan taking place in Georgia”, in response to his Estonian counterpart Kaja Kallas drawing a parallel between Western officials’ support for both the 2014 public protests in Ukraine and ongoing rallies in Georgia against the controversial domestic law on transparency of foreign influence.

Kallas was speaking about Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna’s appearance at a rally against the law in Tbilisi earlier this month, which had been criticised by the Georgian authorities, and said “if you think about how the Ukrainian Maidan demonstrations were - there were a lot of European politicians, a lot of people came to express their support for the Ukrainian people”.

In his response, Kobakhidze said “[t]he fact that the [Estonian] Minister of Foreign Affairs participates in an opposition rally in Georgia without the consent of the Prime Minister shows a lack of seriousness”, and called the circumstances “sad”.

The PM also said events following the Maidan rallies and the subsequent revolution in Ukraine had taken a “state that had its territorial integrity [and] an economy of $200 billion” in 2013 to a country “in decline” currently, on the backdrop of Russia’s invasion.  

“Ukraine’s economy has been qualitatively reduced, 20 percent of the Ukrainian territories has been occupied, tens of thousands of people have died, and no one takes responsibility for this”, he alleged.

The PM further added the “most important thing we should be careful about is the independence of [Georgia]”, adding “no-one else can take responsibility for protecting the interests of our country”.