The Georgian authorities have accused the West of backing anti-government rallies, echoing the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev<\/p>\n
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who currently chairs the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), was fined after taking part in an unauthorized opposition protest in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi earlier this week, local news outlet Tabula reported on Thursday, citing the Interior Ministry.
\nThe unrest was the latest in a series of demonstrations that have swept the country in recent years. The Georgian authorities have repeatedly accused Western governments of backing the protests in an effort to undermine the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has refused to antagonize neighboring Russia over the Ukraine conflict.
\nGeorgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said the EU openly backed the demonstrators, who were \u201cfinanced by foreign special services\u201d in a manner similar to the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine.
\nThe ministry told Tabula that Valtonen was fined 5,000 lari ($1,850) for \u201cillegally blocking the road\u201d during the demonstration.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Western-backed opposition has attempted five coups in four years \u2013 Georgian PM<\/p>\n
Valtonen arrived in Georgia this week as OSCE chair, part of a regional tour of the South Caucasus. On Tuesday, she met with Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues.
\nLater that day, Valtonen posted a video from in front of the Georgian Parliament, saying she joined the demonstrators who gathered to express their concerns over what she described as Georgia\u2019s increasingly repressive political direction.
\nShortly afterwards, Kobakhidze canceled a planned meeting with Valtonen. In an official statement, the government accused the OSCE chair of taking part in an \u201cillegal rally\u201d and making \u201cfalse statements\u201d about Georgia\u2019s internal affairs.
\nThe latest wave of protests erupted on October 4 following the closing of the polls in the country\u2019s local elections. Crowds have breached the grounds of the presidential palace, scuffling with police who have used pepper spray and water cannons to repel them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Georgian authorities have accused the West of backing anti-government rallies, echoing the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who currently chairs the Organization for Security…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}