President Salome Zourabichvili, who refused to recognize the official results, told AP that the South Caucasus nation has fallen victim to Russian pressure aimed at derailing Georgia’s plans to join the European Union.
“We’ve seen that Russian propaganda was directly used,” said Zourabichvili, a fierce critic of Georgian Dream, the governing party. She said the government has been “working hand-in-hand with Russia,” and “probably” received help from Moscow’s security services.
EU Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said Monday that Georgian Dream’s election campaign was “directly inspired” by Russian propaganda and there were “unprecedented levels of disinformation.”
On Sunday, Zourabichvili stood alongside opposition leaders and urged Georgians to join a rally on the main street of the capital, Tbilisi, on Monday night to protest what she called a “total falsification, a total stealing of your votes.”
The Central Election Commission said the Georgian Dream party received 54.8% of Saturday’s votes with almost all ballots counted.The Kremlin on Monday “strongly rejected” accusations by Georgia’s pro-EU president and opposition of interference in Tbilisi’s weekend election.”There are attempts to destabilise the situation in the republic,” a Kremlin spokesperson said, referring to the Georgian president.
Kremlin instead accused European countries of trying to interfere in the Caucasus country’s elections. “There are attempts to interfere — but not from Russia’s side,” the spokesperson said.