On November 5, a Facebook page “მოგიტ*ანთ ოპოზიცია” (Fu** your opposition) shared a video, uploaded on its page on November 17, 2019, with a following description: “Vashadze’s address to the people”. The 16-second-long video shows how Grigol Vashadze speaks to journalists at a protest demonstration on November 17, 2019. In the video, Vashadze says: “Pardon my vocabulary, but I do not give a damn about the opinions of oppositional parties, non-governmental organizations, opinions of citizens – you will go on a hunger strike and you will be rightless for as long as we want to, that is it.”
The video post, shared on November 5, had 20 shares, 32 reactions, and nine comments as of November 6, 15:30.
The video was shared in the Facebook groups “Live Show 💃🚶” and “სიმართლის გზა” (Way of truth).
The original video, uploaded to the page on November 17, 2019, has up to 2,000 shares.
The video disseminated by “Fu** your opposition” is manipulative, as Grigol Vashadze’s quote is presented incompletely, outside of its original context. The page cut a 16-second segment from Vashadze’s three-minute-long speech – something that changes the meaning of the words said in the original video. In fact, Grigol Vashadze does not address the people with these words – he uses these words to express the attitude of Bidzina Ivanishvili towards the citizens of Georgia. The widespread video aims to discredit Grigol Vashadze and the United National Movement.
The 16-second-long video segment uploaded to the “Fu** your opposition” on November 17, 2019, has been cut from a livestream of Mtavari Channel which covered the protests on that day.
Civil society and the opposition were protesting the failure of the bill on proportional electoral system and demanding the resignation of the government and holding early elections with a proportional system. On November 17, representatives of the opposition blocked all entrances to the parliament.
Grigol Vashadze was talking to the journalists on this demonstration. He criticized the Georgian Dream government and Bidzina Ivanishvili for the failure of the proportional electoral system bill and made the statement, manipulatively used in the video, to illustrate the attitude of Bidzina Ivanishvili to the citizens of Georgia. Vashadze said that, one day, Bidzina Ivanishvili promised the public proportional elections, but the next day, via his “satellites”, he let the people know that he does not give a damn about the opinions of the opposition and the citizens, and the statements of the non-governmental organizations.
| Version by Fu** your opposition | Version aired on Mtavari Channel |
| Grigol Vashadze: “Pardon my vocabulary, but I do not give a damn about the opinions of oppositional parties, non-governmental organizations, opinions of citizens – you will go on a hunger strike and you will be rightless for as long as we want to, that is it…” | Grigol Vashadze: “… citizens demand a simple thing: govern as we tell you, not as you wish. Is this what they so profusely promised to the people in 2012? Is it? Is ‘Gavrilov’s night’ what they promised? Is this stability? What kind of stability is it, when, one day, you promise, take responsibility to introduce proportional elections that should have been accompanied with a peaceful shift of power, and the next day, through your satellites you tell the citizens of Georgia: ‘pardon myvocabulary, but I do not give a damn about the opinions of oppositional parties, non-governmental organizations, opinions of citizens – you will go on a hunger strike and you will be rightless for as long as we want to, that is it…’” |
Myth Detector has also identified a manipulative video published by a Facebook page “ვაი ბიძიკო” (Vai bidziko). You can find the article via this link:
Link to the video archive: https://archive.ph/AvDNK
