08.03.2023, Tbilisi
Liberal opposition of Georgia, protesting against the law on foreign agents, got the “green light” to occupy the Georgian parliament building and then to carry out a coup d’etat. This follows from the hidden video of the protest on March 8, published by Rustavi2 TV channel on March 9.
The video features Giorgi Makarashvili, leader of the Shame movement, Akia Barbakadze, a retired colonel, who took part in the attack on Abkhazia in 1992, and Gedevan Popkhadze, a former MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party.
“If people came out, we got legitimization to take the building… Whoever will come out in the cold, you bring [people – Rossa Primavera News Agency] into the building they will spend the night. People will not stay without entering the building, for sure… If they give the green light, allow us to select a particular group and take the first wave, then others will follow … This is the subject of two months, there will still be a coup,” Popkhadze said in the video.
Later the channel showed another video showing Popkhadze discussing the plans to storm the Parliament with Sergey Kapanadze, leader of the European Georgia Party and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia under Mikhail Saakashvili. The conversation again includes the phrase – “we have the green light.” Both videos do not specify who exactly gave the green light.
“There was a serious problem of non-compliance, that is, not getting the [EU candidate – Rossa Primavera News Agency] status. So they were afraid of the people and failed beforehand. I believe that this is a kind of lustration, if you can, you should enter,” Kapanadze replied to the former MP.
On March 8, opposition protests against the bill turned into riots. Protesters broke through fences and windows of the parliament building, erected barricades and burned police cars. The riots were dispersed on the morning of March 9, using water cannons and tear gas.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
