Is Georgia seeing a ‘colour revolution’?

On the face of it, the protests that rocked the Georgian capital of Tbilisi last week looked a lot like recent regional history repeating itself. Just as in Georgia’s own Rose revolution in 2003 or Ukraine’s Orange and Maidan revolutions of 2004 and 2014, vast crowds waving EU flags took to the streets to demand democratic change, to be met with police baton charges, tear gas and water cannons.  

The cause of last week’s protests was a law passed by Georgia’s parliament requiring non-governmental organisations that received funding from abroad to register as ‘foreign agents’ – a requirement that looked uncomfortably similar to a longstanding Russian law which has been used by the Kremlin to crack down on civil society organisations and political opposition. Many protesters were also supporters of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, imprisoned since 2021 on charges of ‘abuse of power’ that many saw as politically motivated. Saakashvili is gravely ill in prison hospital after a hunger strike – and possibly suffering from the effects of poisoning, his supporters claim.