The Georgian leader: “A protest to overthrow the government was taking place”

Protesters attempt to break into the presidential palace grounds during an opposition rally on the day of local elections in Tbilisi, Georgia. October 4, 2025.
Photo: Reuters

The unrest in Tbilisi, including the breakthrough into the courtyard of the presidential residence through iron fences, is being orchestrated by foreign intelligence services, Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili stated at his briefing.

The Georgian leader noted that a parallel protest to overthrow the government was taking place, accompanied by acts of vandalism and corresponding calls.

“There are still forces operating under the control of foreign intelligence services in Georgia,” Kavelashvili said.

"You know that some foreigners, including the EU representative, directly supported the attempt to overthrow the constitutional order. Against this background, the EU ambassador to Georgia bears special responsibility for this," Kobakhidze said at a news briefing.

Georgia held local government elections on Saturday for city and municipal mayors, as well as city council members. Georgian authorities repeatedly warned the organizers of the election day rally that violations would be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Levan Khabeishvili, former head of the United National Movement party founded by former President Mikhail Saakashvili, and another party member, Tbilisi City Council member Zviad Kuprava, were previously arrested for calling for the overthrow of the government.

On October 4, the day of local elections, protests took place in Tbilisi. Several dozen protesters attempted to break into the presidential palace. According to Newsgeogria, police used water cannons to disperse the demonstrators, and clashes broke out between protesters and security forces.

“You know that some foreigners, including the EU representative, directly supported the attempt to overthrow the constitutional order. Against this background, the EU ambassador to Georgia bears special responsibility for this,” Kobakhidze said at a news briefing pointing to the EU Ambassador Paweł Herczyński.

On October 5, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze blamed the unrest in the capital on the EU Ambassador to Tbilisi, Pavel Gerchinsky. According to Kobakhidze, some foreign representatives, including an EU official, directly supported the attempt to overthrow the constitutional order in the country.

“This Saturday 04.10.2025 in Georgia was the day of local elections, amid a period of extensive crackdown on dissent” reads the statement by High Representative/Vice President Kallas and Commissioner for Enlargement Kos on Georgia.

Choosing sides in a war

Tens of thousands of antigovernment demonstrators rallied at Freedom Square in Tbilisi on Saturday, as the country of 3.7 million people voted in local elections. Some leaders promised a “peaceful revolution”, even as the largest opposition blocs boycotted the elections.

However, a smaller group of protesters attempted to enter the presidential palace minutes before polls closed. They were repelled by riot police using gas and water cannon.

Saturday’s local polls were Georgian Dream’s first electoral test since a disputed parliamentary vote a year ago plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and prompted a freeze on Georgia’s accession bid to European Union candidacy. In October 2024, Georgian Dream won a comfortable victory in parliamentary elections that were accused of being fraudulent by the opposition.

The central election commission said Georgian Dream had secured municipal council majorities in every municipality on Saturday’s election and that its candidates scored landslide wins in mayoral races in all cities. These outcomes were largely expected, with most opposition parties boycotting the vote.

Rights groups say some 60 people – among them key opposition figures, journalists and activists – have been jailed over the past year. Georgian Dream has pledged to ban all major opposition parties.

The country has been rocked by protests for more than a year, with supporters of the opposition accusing the ruling Georgian Dream party of authoritarianism and of seeking to drag the country, once among the Soviet Union’s most pro-Western successor states, back towards Russia.

Georgian Dream, however, says it is not pro-Russian and that it eventually wants to join the EU, while also keeping the peace with Moscow and preserving what it calls Georgia’s traditional Orthodox Christian values.

The party is widely seen as controlled by billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is sanctioned by the US for what it calls his promotion of Russian interests.

People with an EU flag hold a part of a fence as police use a water cannon to prevent protesters rallying outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia on November 29, 2024.
Photo: AP

Police arrest 13 people over October 4 events

Thirteen people have been arrested for their involvement in the October 4 election-day unrest at the presidential palace in Tbilisi, the Georgian Interior Ministry announced late on October 6, adding that a search is underway for two other individuals as authorities continue to identify additional suspects.

The arrests follow the investigation launched by the police on October 4 on four different coup and violence-related criminal charges, including incitement to change Georgia’s constitutional order through violence or to overthrow the government; damage or destruction of property; seizure or blockage of a broadcasting or communications organization or a facility of strategic or special importance; and organization, management, or participation in group violence.

During the late-night interview with Rustavi 2 channel on October 6, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze clarified that police were arresting today protesters “who stormed the presidential palace.”

The arrests come two days after tensions flared in downtown Tbilisi on the day of a partially boycotted municipal vote when, following calls from mass rally organizers, a group of protesters attempted to occupy the presidential palace. Police repelled and dispersed the crowd, later arresting five rally organizers and vowing to identify and apprehend others.

Kobakhidze doubles down on the narrative of retribution

Following the local elections and the night of localized unrest instigated by some protest rally organizers, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze doubled down on the narrative of retribution against protesters and their political opponents.

Irakli Kobakhidze

Speaking at a special press conference, Kobakhidze proclaimed that “all who came at 16:00 at the Liberty Square, all of them went to the event of the coup, and only after seeing that the attempt failed, they shamefully distanced themselves from Burchuladze, Zodelava, and others.”

“In the past four years, we saw already the fifth attempt at organizing “NatsMaidan” ‘[linking the pejorative term Natsis for UNM and Maidan, for Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity],” Kobakhidze argued and continued that “we have a specific responsibility towards one million one hundred thousand voters [who voted for GD according to CEC data] to rid our country of the disease named the collective National Movement.”

Going further, Kobakhidze specified that “Under collective National Movement, I mean the relevant political parties, all foreign agents that are giving our state no respite, the extremist groups that work under instructions of the foreign special services and with their financing, among others, one of the universities captired by Saakashvili family and the organizations “Fari”, “Ertoba” and other extremist groups.”

The GD-affiliated TV channels have been preparing the ground for targeting the universities and coordination movements linked with the peaceful protests, accusing them of “money laundering” and acting on behalf of the “foreign intelligence services […] to violently change the government.”

SSSG says arms cache found, links to October 4 unrest

The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) announced on October 5 that it had traced “large quantities” of firearms, ammunition, and explosives with a detonator, alleging they were intended for “subversive acts” during the October 4 unrest in Tbilisi and linking them to a “military unit” in Ukraine.

The agency said the arms were discovered in a “special hiding place” in a forest near Tbilisi, releasing footage of officers digging out large packages from the ground at night. Officials added that they will be launching a search for the suspect, a Georgian citizen identified by the initials B. Tch.

Citing “numerous pieces of evidence,” the agency alleged that B. Tch. had purchased large quantities of firearms, ammunition, and explosives “on the instructions of a Georgian representative of a military unit active in Ukraine.” According to the SSSG, the materials were intended for “subversive acts parallel to the organized group violence and the attempted seizure of the presidential palace in Tbilisi on October 4.”

Georgian security services have referenced Ukraine in connection with the October 4 rally before, notably weeks earlier, when they arrested two Ukrainians, alleging they had brought powerful explosives into the country on instructions from Kyiv.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs