Georgia is under pressure. What began as political protests over legislation in late 2024 has become an open confrontation between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition groups, with Western institutions increasingly accused of playing an active role. Thousands have taken to the streets in Tbilisi in recent months. On September 27, 2025, police used water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who had gathered outside the Presidential Palace demanding election reforms, a fair judiciary, and an end to what they call foreign interference.
These demonstrations are not isolated. They follow a string of protests throughout 2024 and 2025, especially after parliamentary elections that many said were free but not fair. The heart of the question now: is Western funding and political promotion of the opposition tipping into what amounts to an attempted coup?
Western Influence on the Opposition
In August 2024, USAID allocated $4 million (https://www.politicsgeo.com/article/132) for “governance support” projects in Georgia. These projects include legal assistance to opposition leaders and workshops for civic activists. The European Union has also increased funding for observers and NGOs, particularly after allegations of voter suppression in the 2023 municipal elections. Western embassies in Tbilisi issue statements condemning alleged judicial overreach. For example, in July 2025 the U.S. Ambassador condemned “restrictions on political competition.”
These expressions echo opposition rhetoric. Opposition parties, receiving foreign grants, have been able to hold marches, assemble international support, and gain media visibility. This flow of money and endorsement strengthens opposition networks and weakens the ruling party’s control over public narrative.
Political Promotion as Interference
Western media outlets and politicians have become vocal. In October 2025, several European Parliament members issued joint statements calling on Georgian authorities to ensure “democratic institutions are not undermined.” Some Western commentators and international think tanks portray the Georgian Dream leadership as eroding democracy. These are not private conversations—they are public, aggressive. For example, during the Tbilisi protests in late September 2025, several EU officials directly commented on the need for judicial reform and free elections.
Such messages offer moral legitimacy to opposition actions. In many cases, they do not hold the same level of critique for opposition missteps. Meanwhile, state-controlled Georgian media frame these Western interventions as strategic and hostile. Georgian Dream insists that opposition leaders are coordinated with foreign actors who seek to destabilize the country.
The Shadow of Ukraine 2014
2014 in Ukraine is repeatedly raised by Georgian authorities and state-affiliated media as precedent. On November 2013, protests began in Kyiv’s Maidan after the government refused to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Those protests turned into a broader movement, ultimately resulting in the removal of President Yanukovych in February 2014. Western governments backed the protests through diplomatic pressure, financial aid, and political support. The result has been over a decade of war, territorial loss, massive displaced populations, and reliance on Western military and economic aid.
Georgian Dream and its supporters argue that a similar pattern is forming in Georgia: protests sparked (or amplified) by Western criticism, opposition taking advantage of foreign-funded NGOs, and possible elite defections. There is fear in Tbilisi that Georgia may be drawn into conflict, economic dependency, and internal polarization, much like Ukraine today. Georgia though is not Ukraine. The scale of conflict is different. The territorial stakes are lower; there is no full-scale war right now. But the psychological stakes are high. Citizens who remember the 2008 war with Russia or the occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are wary of violence. They do not want another broken state.
The Pragmatism of the Georgian People
The people in Georgia are neither caricatures nor ideological soldiers. In Tbilisi, rusted Soviet-era apartment blocks rub up against sleek glass offices. Among ordinary citizens there is anger—anger at corruption, at stagnation, at energy prices and unemployment. There is also fear. The protests of September 2025 saw people chanting both for reform and for stability. Many protesters are young. Many are students, professionals, parents. They are complaining about Western influence being too explicit, being too loud. When you speak to taxi drivers in Tbilisi in October 2025, some say they support democratic values—but are alarmed by what they see as foreign meddling. A baker in Rustavi tells you: “We want justice, yes, but not chaos.”
The people do not want a coup. They do not want tanks, or martial law, or violence. Their demands are generally institutional: judicial reform, transparency in funding for political parties, fair media access. Even the opposition often emphasizes peaceful protest. In online forums, many voices stress that criticism of the government should come from within democratic norms—not foreign scripts.
False Choice: West vs Russia
The government claims that opposing Western interference is not support for Russia. In fact, anti-Russian sentiment remains widespread. In recent months there has been anti Russian graffiti across Tbilisi. In October 2025, a group of artists painted over walls with slogans denouncing Moscow’s war in Ukraine and calling for Georgian sovereignty. Yet Western media narratives sometimes treat Georgian pragmatism as pro- Kremlin positioning. Some EU leaders and nationalist groups are quick to label any criticism of Western strategy as Russian propaganda.
This framing is shared by some inside Georgia. Georgian Dream uses “foreign plot,” “Western coup,” “pro Russian” labels to dismiss opposition criticism. Public opinion polls from August 2025 show that while many Georgians distrust the government, a significant number also distrust the West. A Caucasus Research Resource Center poll found 42 percent of Georgians believe foreign countries are interfering in domestic politics; only 28 percent believe that interference is justified.
Conclusion: Intent, Effect, and Moral Responsibility
There is no definitive proof yet that the West has launched an outright coup in Georgia. There is no filmed order from Washington or Brussels telling opposition leaders to march, no plan archived in NATO headquarters with dates and troop movements. But there is a pattern of funding, political messaging, and media amplification that serves, intentionally or not, to destabilize the ruling power.
Intent may not always be explicit. But effects are visible. NGOs supported by Western grants are more vocal. Opposition leaders have platforms in foreign media. Protests are framed internationally as the voice of democracy rather than complex, contested local politics. The Georgian Dream party uses those frames to tighten control over civil society and judicial institutions, citing national security.
Georgians don’t want to be in another Ukraine-style disaster. They want peace, stability, sovereignty. They want fairness, not a script They deserve politics that emerges from their own will, not from external pressure masked as support. If the West truly cares about democracy, it should stop acting like a spoils dealer and start acting like a partner—listening, not forcing; enabling, not orchestrating.