Lavrov compares the protests in Georgia with the Euromaidan in Ukraine

March 10 () –

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has compared this Friday the protests registered during the last week in Georgia with those of the Euromaidan in Ukraine, a series of demonstrations of a Europeanist nature registered in the country at the end of 2013 and which led to the Ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s removal from power.

Lavrov, who has indicated that the case is similar to the one lived then in Ukrainian territory, has indicated that “there is no doubt that the Georgian bill was just an excuse to start a process of change of power by force.”

This is how he referred to the legislation on foreign agents that was finally withdrawn by Georgian deputies and that has unleashed a strong wave of protests by the opposition. The regulations contemplated that all those organizations that had more than 20 percent of financing coming from abroad would be classified as “foreign agents”.

However, critical voices have warned that the “Russian cut” measure could undermine fundamental freedoms and put an end to the work of many NGOs in the country. As he pointed out, this legislation “pales next to other similar ones in force in countries like the United States, France, India and Israel.”

“In the United States, a violation of this type of legislation entails a fine of about $250,000 and penalties of up to five years in prison, while the Georgian one included only a fine of $9,000,” he said, according to information from the news agency. TASS news.

Likewise, he has made reference to the words of the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, whom he has accused of “hypocrisy”. “Despite the fact that many EU countries have similar and much more severe measures, (…) Borrell has said that the Georgian one contradicts European values ​​and blocks Georgia’s path to membership.”