In the winter of 2024, as Georgians continued their protests against their government's decision to suspend EU accession talks, the Russian propaganda machine launched a systematic campaign to rewrite the narrative. This effort mirrors broader strategies of cultural dominance that Russia uses across the former Soviet states, which include attempting to erase authentic democratic movements, devaluing any protest against the pro-Russian path, and aggressively striving to return these states into Russian spheres of influence. Meanwhile, 20% of Georgian territories remain under Russian military occupation.
Georgian protests are the latest example of the Kremlin employing a familiar playbook that was first put to the test during Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity
in 2013-2014. This systematic approach to discrediting pro-European movements reveals Moscow's unchanging strategy throughout the post-Soviet space, in which any attempt to break free from Russian influence is met with a coordinated disinformation campaign.
The parallels between Ukraine's Maidan and Georgia's current protests can be found not only in their shared European aspirations but also in Russia's response to them. In both cases, authentic grassroots movements for democratic changes face the same arsenal of propaganda techniques aimed to undermine their legitimacy and present them as Western-orchestrated chaos rather than a genuine expression of national will.
Russia's tactics in the current campaign against Georgian protesters were crystallised and tested during Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. In 2013-2014, the Russian propaganda machine put together the script of delegitimising pro-European protests in Ukraine, creating a versatile technique that would later be applied to protests in Belarus (2020-2021) and now in Georgia.
During the Maidan protests in Ukraine (also known as the Revolution of Dignity), Russian media established several key narratives that became recurring elements in their "anti-protest toolkit":
These same elements are now appearing in Georgia, demonstrating how Russia maintains a consistent strategy while adapting it to local contexts. Through both the network of Telegram channels and state media, Russian propagandists
methodically construct an alternative reality where legitimate Georgian protests become mere replicas of what they term the "Ukrainian scenario." This deliberate distortion serves a dual purpose: it both delegitimises current democratic aspirations and retrospectively reinforces Russian narratives about Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity as a "Western-organised coup."
The aforementioned propaganda campaign operates through carefully orchestrated visual and narrative parallels. As the Western media draws parallels between the course of protest in 2024 Georgia and 2013-2014 Ukraine (protest tactics, the choice of protective equipment made by demonstrators, and the visual symbols of resistance, such as Christmas trees decorated with flags), Russian propaganda outlets obsessively point to these universal elements of people's resistance as "evidence of Western orchestration." This creates a perverse reality where authentic democratic movements are overwritten with conspiracy narratives--and such tactics have already been used to discredit the protests in Ukraine (2013-2014) and Belarus (2020-2021).
The dehumanising language used against Georgian protesters today is also reminiscent of the terminology used to offend Ukrainian Maidan participants in 2013-2014. Russian propaganda portrayed Ukrainian protesters as "fascists" and "bandits," establishing a template that would be reused in Georgia. This continuity in dehumanising rhetoric reveals not just tactical similarity but a deeper strategic approach to delegitimising any pro-European movement in any country that Russia considers its own "sphere of influence."
The transformation of protest symbols into tools of dehumanisation was another classic propagandistic move used by Russia to discredit Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. The term "Maidan" undergoes metamorphosis into "Maidown" (a synthesis of Ukrainian Maidan and Down syndrome) not only proves the perverted humour of Russian propagandists but also shows how language becomes an instrument of dehumanisation and devaluation as protesters are consistently labelled as "coordinated by the West."
Also, the Georgian protesters are portrayed as "rodents" (this tradition was also supported by Alexei Navalny). This technique was described in the work "Imagined Communities" by Benedict Anderson as a deeply colonial pattern. The researcher provides the example of French colonial propaganda labelling Algerian freedom fighters as "little rats" (ratons): not only to dehumanise and humiliate them while also asserting the coloniser's superiority over the colonised.
This linguistic violence not only deprives protesters of their agency and humanity, transforming citizens expressing democratic aspirations into faceless pawns of foreign powers, but also serves as an apology of obedience to the authoritarian regime, which is now a part of "Russian traditional values." Tellingly, such "animal metaphors" have been actively used by Russian propaganda against Ukrainians (who are often labelled as "pigs").
This linguistic parallel implies that contemporary Russian propaganda is rooted in a larger historical tradition of colonial discourse
. The fact that this term appears not only in official propaganda but has also been used by opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny
demonstrates how deeply imperial the Russian political mindset is. The persistence of such colonial language
reveals what Anderson refers to as the "grammar of dominance"--linguistic patterns that normalise and perpetuate imperial power relations.
The systematic use of dehumanizing language serves multiple purposes: it strips protesters of their agency and humanity, transforming citizens expressing democratic aspirations into either subhuman creatures ("rations") or faceless pawns of foreign powers ("Soros puppets," "Western agents"). This linguistic violence
creates what Anderson calls an "imagined hierarchy"--a constructed reality where the coloniser's superiority appears natural and resistance becomes delegitimised by definition.
Amid the growing protests, Russian propaganda constructs elaborate predictions of violence. Unsubstantiated claims about "planned provocations" and "Western-orchestrated casualties" emerge regularly on propaganda channels. These narratives serve as preemptive justification for potential violence while simultaneously attempting to discredit the demonstrations.
The cynicism reaches its peak in the construction of threat narratives. Russian propagandists openly suggest that one "FAB 1500 bomb on several hundred protesters" would be an "acceptable price" to prevent Georgia's European integration and return "back to sanity" (in other words, to the Russian sphere of influence). Once again, the "Ukrainian scenario" is used as a horror story and a veiled threat of a new Russian invasion:
"If the authorities in Georgia don't take the situation into their own hands now by ordering the parasites to be dispersed as harshly as possible, then Georgia faces a major war in which tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Georgians, will die."
Source: Telegram/Zаписки Vетерана
These threats mirror the escalating rhetoric used against Ukraine before Russia's full-scale invasion of the country. The pattern is clear: first comes the delegitimisation of protests, then accusations of "Western manipulation," followed by increasingly explicit threats of violence.
This technique, first seen in Ukraine, now serves as a warning sign for other post-Soviet states that do not show the desire to be Russian satellites.
The attempt to position itself as a protector of Georgian interests while threatening mass violence exemplifies the paradoxical nature of Russian propaganda. Through carefully constructed narratives, it presents Russia as a saviour (which is exactly what happened in the Ukrainian case), while the protesters seeking European integration become dangerous radicals threatening stability.
The destruction of authentic historical narratives occurs alongside the construction of artificial ones. Russian propaganda creates a distorted mirror where genuine democratic aspirations become Western plots, peaceful protesters transform into paid agents, and resistance to Russian influence appears as a path to inevitable destruction, not to mention the "collapse of morality".
Most disturbing is the systematic effort of these narratives to reshape collective memory. By framing all pro-democratic movements in the post-Soviet space as artificial constructs, Russian propaganda attempts to create a world where genuine grassroots resistance becomes conceptually impossible. In this distorted reality, there are only puppet masters and puppets, leaving no room for authentic democratic expression. By controlling how events are interpreted and remembered, Russian propaganda aims to control and reshape the way future generations of target countries will understand the history of resistance, not to mention the present and future generations of Russians.
What connects the Ukrainian and Georgian protests, despite their different contexts, is their fundamental nature as value-based movements. Both represent not just political choices but civilisational ones-choosing European democratic values over authoritarian influence. Russia's aggressive response to both movements demonstrates its understanding of this deeper significance.
The Georgian protests of 2024, like Ukraine's Maidan before them, represent more than just opposition to specific government policies but a broader struggle for self-determination and European identity
that directly challenges Russia's conception of its "privileged interests" in neighbouring states.
In this context, Russia's propaganda campaigns against both movements reveal Moscow's unchanged colonial mindset and its deep-rooted opposition to genuine democratic expression in what it considers the "near abroad." Understanding these parallels and Russia's systematic approach to undermining pro-European movements all over the world becomes crucial for preserving authentic democratic narratives against the tide of propaganda that seeks to erase them.
The struggle of Georgian protesters today, like that of Ukrainian protesters in 2013-2014, demonstrates that despite Russia's extensive propaganda toolkit, the aspiration for European integration and democratic values remains resilient across the post-Soviet space. Each protest becomes not just an expression of national democratic aspirations but part of a broader regional movement toward European integration and away from Russian authoritarian influence.
Thus, the effort to discredit Georgian protests reveals itself as part of a broader strategy to maintain control over post-Soviet spaces through the manipulation of historical memory and public discourse. Understanding these mechanisms becomes crucial for preserving authentic democratic narratives against the tide of propaganda that seeks to erase them.
The Georgian protests are thus not just an expression of democratic aspirations but an act of resistance against the so-called "multipolar world," a Russian ideologeme that, in practice, always assumes only one pole---the Russian one.
This article was originally published on the Kremlin's Voice platform.