Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who currently serves as chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has been fined by Georgian authorities for participating in an unauthorised opposition protest in Tbilisi.
According to the Interior Ministry, Valtonen was penalised 5,000 lari (about US$1,850) for illegally blocking a road during the demonstration earlier this week.
The protests, which erupted after the country’s local elections on October 4, are the latest in a series of anti-government rallies that Georgia’s ruling party claims are supported by Western nations seeking to destabilise the government.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze compared the unrest to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan uprising, accusing the EU of backing protesters “financed by foreign special services.”
Valtonen, in Georgia on an OSCE regional tour, posted a video supporting demonstrators’ concerns over what she described as the country’s increasingly repressive direction. Following her appearance at the protest, the Georgian government canceled a scheduled meeting with her and accused her of making false statements about Georgia’s internal affairs.
🇫🇮🇬🇪 – Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen made Georgian officials mad during her Tbilisi visit. After voicing human rights worries to her counterpart and posting about ongoing repression of protesters, journalists, and civil society, she joined an anti-government rally… pic.twitter.com/sUJHO8rOzs
— EuroWatcher – News for you (@EuroWatcherEUW) October 16, 2025
