Thousands gathered in the Georgian capital Tbilisi late Monday to protest the results of parliamentary elections after the country’s president denounced them as rigged in favor of Moscow.
The showdown marks the latest alleged effort by the Kremlin to expand its influence in countries once in its orbit.
It follows a closely fought referendum in Moldova that saw the government’s plan to seek EU membership approved by a slim margin amid claims of Russian meddling.
In Bulgaria, a pro-Kremlin party scored a strong finish in an election Sunday.
The U.S. called for an investigation, and the European Union was critical of the vote in Georgia, where the ruling Georgian Dream party, which advocates closer ties with Russia, claimed victory.
Pro-European opposition parties denounced the outcome as falsified.
They drew support from Salome Zourabichvili, who holds the largely ceremonial post of president and appealed to backers to protest in the capital.
"Your voice was stolen, and they attempted to steal your future as well, but no one has the right to do that,” Zourabichvili told people gathered outside the parliament building.
Organizers estimated the crowd in the tens of thousands, while police didn’t give numbers.
The rally, which lasted just over 90 minutes, had blocked off traffic on the city’s main avenue and remained peaceful.
Members of the opposition declined their parliament mandates and demanded a new election overseen by international authorities.
The Georgian Dream party, which has ruled since 2012, won 54% support for another four years in power, according to the Central Election Commission.
Four opposition parties backing a pro-European charter drawn up by Zourabichvili got a combined 38%, the commission said.
Zourabichvili urged Georgians to join protests against what she called a "Russian special operation” aimed at restoring Moscow’s influence and thwarting Georgia’s goal of membership in the European Union and NATO.
The speaker of Georgia’s parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, accused the president of spreading "disinformation” aimed at "destabilizing the country alongside the opposition,” as he defended the result at a news briefing Monday.
The government got a boost from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who arrived in Tbilisi and was quick to congratulate the ruling party on its victory.
Orban has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin but was jeered by demonstrators outside his hotel in Tbilisi, according to video posted on social media.
Orban’s visit also drew criticism from his EU allies as premature.
In a joint statement released on the German Foreign Ministry’s website on Monday, a group of EU states condemned "all violation of international norms for free and fair elections” — and said Orban doesn’t speak on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.
The letter was signed by ministers from 13 member states including Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
The political uncertainty has rattled investors, with two of the country’s biggest stocks falling in London.
Bank of Georgia, which has tumbled from a record high in May, declined as much as 9.9%, and TBC Bank fell as much as 15% before paring some of the losses on Monday.
The lari was little changed after the central bank sold $60 million last week to counter preelection volatility.
Tensions have surged in the Caucasus republic of 4 million after Georgian Dream passed a "foreign agent” law targeting non-governmental organizations and media earlier this year that the U.S. and the EU labeled as "Kremlin-inspired.”
The EU suspended membership talks with Georgia in response — and the U.S. began a review of relations with the government.
One protester, Gia Ubilava, said he’d been driven out of his home in the breakaway region of Abkhazia by Russian forces.
"And now they want me to go back to them and live together in a Russian-run state?” he said. "I don’t think so.”
Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who built his fortune in Russia, has accused a "global war party” in the West of plotting to oust his government and to push Georgia into a conflict with the Kremlin.
The party insists it’s still committed to European integration even as it has improved ties with Moscow in recent months.
International observers led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized "highly divisive campaign rhetoric and widespread reports of pressure on voters” during the election.
While they didn’t challenge the overall result, their election report noted "the many advantages taken by the ruling party contributed to an already uneven playing field.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a "full investigation” of election violations in a statement that refrained from questioning the result.
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