Moscow on Friday portrayed mass protests in Georgia as a “coup attempt” orchestrated by the West, which forced the country’s government to withdraw a draft law that its critics compared to repressive legislation in place in Russia.

The Russian presidency said that it sees behind the demonstrations in the country “the hand” of the USA, which it says is trying to cause “anti-Russian sentiment”.

After three days of protests involving tens of thousands of people, marred in many cases by violent incidents, the Georgian parliament finally withdrew the controversial text on Friday, as the government had promised a day earlier. Authorities also announced the release of people who had been detained on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The developments were a continuation of the deep political crisis of recent years in Georgia, a Caucasian country candidate for EU membership, where part of the population fears an authoritarian deviation in the image of Russia.

Protesters and the opposition have also compared the withdrawn draft law to a text implemented in Russia on “foreign agents” used to silence Kremlin opponents.

The text did provide that non-governmental organizations and media whose income exceeded 20% of their income would be labeled “foreign agents”, under penalty of fines.

For Moscow, the mobilization was “a pretext to launch an attempt to change the regime by force”, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said yesterday. He compared the protests to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution, described by Russia as a coup instigated by the West, which has been providing military support to Kiev since the Russian army invaded Ukrainian territory a year ago.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier launched an attack on Georgian president Salomi Zourabishvili, a political friend close to the EU but whose powers are limited, calling the withdrawal of the bill a “victory”, “but not in Georgia, but from America”.

“Very strong pressures”

Mr Peskov spoke of a “very visible hand that seeks to stir up anti-Russian sentiment”, apparently referring to Washington.

“For more than two centuries” the Russians have been “attacking” and “occupying the territories of sovereign countries”, and “what is important is what the Georgian people wanted to say when they took to the streets once again,” Ms Zurabishvili said. yesterday Friday from New York.

“We already have Russian troops in our country (…) this did not prevent it from remaining independent and continuing its way to Europe (…) nothing can stop us”, he continued, judging that “he is the only road that exists’ for Georgia to remain ‘sovereign and independent’.

Last night the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, expressed his support for his Georgian counterpart Zourabishvili and assured her that his country “supports Georgia on its European path”.

“This course includes freedom of the press and civil society,” he added.

The White House, whose national security adviser Jake Sullivan met yesterday with Georgian President Zourabisvili, made it known that Washington “welcomes” the decision of the administration in Tbilisi to withdraw the controversial draft law.

The US official also called on Georgia to abide by the sanctions imposed by some 30 countries on Russia after its military invasion of Ukraine and to “avoid being used to evade sanctions”, according to a press release issued by the American presidency.

French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, denounced the “very strong pressures” on Georgia and expressed the hope that there would be a “calming” of tensions.

Georgia, a former Soviet republic that was defeated in a blitzkrieg with Russia in 2008, formally aspires to join the European Union and NATO.

But the jailing of former president Mikheil Saakashvili in late 2021 and controversial measures pushed by the ruling party have raised doubts about the country’s ambitions to join the West.

Mr. Saakashvili praised the “resistance” of the protesters against the “barbaric violence against them”.

He succeeded indirectly but clearly in ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on whom he blamed the controversial bill: “no Russia and none of its barbaric oligarchs can defeat” the Georgian protesters, he said.

After the text was rejected by the parliament in the article-by-article reading, about 300 protesters gathered in an atmosphere of calm outside the building, with a rather discreet presence of the police. “The Georgian people have prevailed and will continue to fight for their European future,” said a 20-year-old student, among other protesters holding placards reading “We are Europe”.