Georgia’s rulers in opposition to BBC: Didn’t use Camite | EUROtoday

In Georgia, the regime of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who guidelines with no state workplace of his personal, reacts in the identical approach because it all the time does when it goes on the defensive: counter-accusations are made, counter-narratives are unfold, and legal proceedings are opened. This is the response of these in energy to a BBC report from final week. It suggests {that a} 12 months in the past safety forces used a chemical agent referred to as Camite in opposition to demonstrators, which France used in opposition to the German military throughout World War I.

The Georgian State Security Service introduced on the weekend that the police had used CS fuel in opposition to demonstrators. But bromobenzyl cyanide was “never acquired” – that’s the scientific identify for Camite. Last week, a former inside minister stated that camite and different supplies had certainly been bought and used, however “before 2012,” earlier than Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream occasion got here to energy.

The demonstrations in Tbilisi, in opposition to which Camite is claimed to have been deployed, have been directed in opposition to the regime’s introduced “suspension” of the EU accession course of. The BBC spoke to demonstrators, medical doctors, informants from the safety forces and chemical weapons consultants. The Camite was in all probability sprayed from the water cannons that have been used to drive away the demonstrators from Rustaveli Street within the middle of the capital. Those affected then complained about well being issues that typically lasted for weeks, about pores and skin irritations that solely acquired worse when washing, shortness of breath, coughing, vomiting, complications and fatigue.

Those in energy had already rejected the outcomes of the analysis to the BBC as “absurd” and a “lie”; They have introduced that they may sue the station. Iraqi Kobakhidze, who serves as Ivanishvili’s prime minister, later stated the report was not solely false, “but also a cheap provocation planned by foreign intelligence services.” The first purpose is to “artificially fuel” the protests, which have come to a “complete” standstill. This displays the anger of these in energy in the direction of their opponents. The protests have turn into a lot smaller, partly as a result of an increasing number of opposition politicians and demonstrators are being arrested. Nevertheless, they proceed greater than 370 days after they started, regardless of many risks, of which heavy fines are one of many lesser ones.

Second, Kobakhidze continued, the report was supposed to “further blackmail the Georgian people and their elected government.” This displays dissatisfaction with the truth that representatives of the regime are discovering it tough to reconnect with the West exterior of nations like Viktor Orbán’s Hungary and Robert Fico’s Slovakia, given the parliamentary elections on the finish of October 2024 that, in response to many indications, have been manipulated.

The regime consultant who traveled to Vienna additionally needed to hearken to accusations at the newest Council of Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe final week. The overseas minister of Finland, which holds the rotating presidency this 12 months, spoke of Georgia’s “democratic backsliding”. This can be talked about within the EU’s Georgia reviews. Its overseas affairs consultant, Kaja Kallas, not too long ago stated that the nation “does not have a viable path to the EU at this point.” In addition to the powerful crackdown on the opposition, the EU additionally criticizes the regime’s pro-Moscow line.

The Kremlin applauds the neighboring nation’s “sovereign” course and criticizes “Western interference”. But an open rapprochement is unattainable so long as Russian troops are stationed on 20 % of Georgian territory. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow not too long ago emphasised that the circumstances for resuming a “political dialogue” between the 2 nations don’t exist so long as Tbilisi sticks to the place taken below the previous President Mikheil Saakashvili – and below Ivanishvili, who has been imprisoned for a great 4 years – of solely resuming diplomatic relations when Moscow withdraws the popularity of the 2 breakaway areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as states following the 2008 struggle. “The ball is in the Georgian side,” the pro-Kremlin newspaper “Izvestia” quoted the ministry as saying.

Mikheil Kavelashvili, Ivanishvili’s presidential candidate, portrayed the BBC report as a “deep state” acknowledgment of Georgia’s refusal to meet “tasks.” The alleged insult by the West is being cultivated. In response to the revelation, the state safety service started investigations, on the one hand due to suspicion of abuse of energy to the detriment of the demonstrators, and however due to doable “assistance to a foreign organization in hostile activities”.

In specific, Georgians who spoke within the report or whose work was utilized in it have been interviewed about this accusation. The secret service additionally stated that the one one who had not been in a position to interview Lasha Schergelashvili, a former Interior Ministry official who was in Ukraine. He instructed the BBC, amongst different issues, {that a} substance was in all probability used that he had examined in 2009 and rejected due to severe well being penalties. Schergelashvili is needed in one other legal case, the key service highlighted: According to at least one “version”, the previous official might have ordered the acquisition of weapons for unrest in Tbilisi for “Ukrainian secret services”.