{"id":49026,"date":"2024-05-12T20:44:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/12\/georgian-opposition-politician-beaten-by-hooded-thugs-blames-putins-puppets\/"},"modified":"2024-05-12T20:44:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T20:44:12","slug":"georgian-opposition-politician-beaten-by-hooded-thugs-blames-putins-puppets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/12\/georgian-opposition-politician-beaten-by-hooded-thugs-blames-putins-puppets\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgian opposition politician beaten by hooded thugs blames ‘Putin’s puppets’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Georgian opposition politician who was beaten by a group of hooded thugs has said he was targeted by “Putin’s puppets”.<\/p>\n

United National Movement member Dimitri Chikovani was taken to hospital after suffering a concussion, a broken nose, cuts to the face and two black eyes in the attack outside his home.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Sky News, Mr Chikovani said the attack was not a surprise and blamed Georgian<\/strong><\/a> authorities as they attempt to temper enormous protests in the capital Tbilisi.<\/p>\n

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“This is their last hope to physically attack people to gain to remain in power,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They are Putin’s puppets, the people who make decisions under KGB guidelines, they are Russians. That’s it.”<\/p>\n

CCTV of the attack shows Mr Chikovani walking through the car park to his apartment building before five “athletic” men ran and pushed him to the floor.<\/p>\n

They repeatedly punched and kicked him in the head and ribs.<\/p>\n

Mr Chikovani was not the only government opponent beaten on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Two other activists, one an expert in international relations and another an organiser of Saturday night’s March for Freedom, were also treated in hospital after being attacked.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Thousands protest in Tbilisi against ‘foreign agents’ bill<\/strong><\/a>
Stun grenades used on demonstrators<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Why are Georgians protesting over ‘Russian law’?<\/span>
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Mr Chikovani remains undeterred and plans to attend protests next week against the so-called “Foreign Agents Bill”, which has sparked an outcry across Georgia.<\/p>\n

Describing the mood among many Georgians, he said: “It’s a battle for the soul of Georgia. It’s a matter of national identity. Either you are part of Western civilisation, or you are a part of the Russian empire.”<\/p>\n

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The UK and US have called for the country’s government, led by the Georgian Dream party, to take immediate steps to prevent the intimidation of protesters<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Protesters block traffic in Tbilisi<\/span>
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The party’s chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili is an oligarch worth billions, and is suspected by many Georgians of continuing to have close ties to Russia.<\/p>\n

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Mr Ivanishvili has claimed the bill on “foreign agents” was necessary to assert Georgian sovereignty against Western powers which he said wanted to pull the nation into a confrontation with Russia.<\/p>\n

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Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

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Mr Chikovani believes the billionaire is a driving force behind the political crackdown which has grown in Georgia over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

“You can expect anything from Ivanishvili,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Georgian opposition politician who was beaten by a group of hooded thugs has said he was targeted by “Putin’s puppets”. United National Movement member Dimitri Chikovani was taken to hospital after suffering a concussion, a broken nose, cuts to the face and two black eyes in the attack outside his home. In an interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/05\/768x432\/skynews-dimitri-chikovani-georgia_6551983.jpg?20240512175139","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20552,9819,49463,49464,5118,18657,49466,3979,49465],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49028,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49026\/revisions\/49028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}