The US Ambassador to Georgia responds to the developments regarding the Pride Festival.

“I just wanted to start with a comment on the events last Saturday at Lisi Lake. It was very sad to see people so filled with hate, using violence to prevent a peaceful, private event from occurring, especially when they claim to be acting in God’s name.

Now, people may disagree about many things, but I think we can all agree that Christian values, first and foremost, are about compassion, love, tolerance, and respect; and the fact that all people are created in God’s image. We saw last year at the events that the police know how to protect citizens and control protestors. I was assured the day before last Saturday’s event by senior officials at the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the protestors would not be allowed to break through the police periphery, and that the protestors would be kept a safe distance from the people attending the concert.

None of that happened. We saw none of that. In fact, an unruly mob was allowed to walk for several kilometers through the streets of Tbilisi calling for violence. They were allowed not only to breach the police perimeter, but to enter the site and vandalize, loot, and destroy property with no response from the police. It’s very concerning to see what is a seemingly coordinated series of attacks on citizens in the streets of Tbilisi.

These same extremists that we saw on Saturday were the same extremists that organized the violence in 2021. They are on their Facebook sites, caught on video, calling for violence; saying that they’re going to crush jaws and spill blood; walking through the streets of Tbilisi threatening people with violence; they are proud to say they are for violence. I think everyone will feel a lot safer in Tbilisi when these people who are on video are arrested and prosecuted“, - said Kelly Degnan.