Georgia passes controversial Russian-style ‘foreign agents’ law

Like many Georgians, Rati Khazalia believes that he is leading a “fight to save” his country’s democracy and free this Eastern European country from Russia’s attempts to isolate it.

“We have been betrayed by our government,” he said. “We were sold to (Russia) for nothing.”

The 29-year-old business owner, who founded and runs a printing company in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, made the comments in a telephone interview this week as Georgian lawmakers pushed through parliament a controversial bill on Russian-style “foreign agents”, which has raised some concerns. the country’s largest protests since it regained independence from Moscow in 1991.

Khazalia is one of the protesters.

“It’s time for everyone to come together,” he said.

The law was approved by 84 deputies voting for, against 30 against.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said she intended to veto the measure, which she called an “exact copy” of an authoritarian law in Russia that cracks down on anti-corruption activists, organizations promoting democracy and political dissent. However, since the ruling Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party controls the legislature, Zurabishvili’s veto can easily be lifted.–mounted.

Video broadcast on Georgian television showed fights breaking out in parliament on Tuesday, with rival lawmakers shoving and gesticulating angrily during debates over the bill. After the controversial bill was passed, protesters broke through barriers in the Georgian parliament. The police fired tear gas.

A new house – and a moral dilemma:Russians escape Putin’s war against Ukraine for Georgia

Here’s what Georgia’s “foreign agent” law is and why it’s controversial.

What is Georgia’s “foreign agent” law?

The law requires any Georgian organization that receives more than 20 percent of its funding from abroad to register as an agent of foreign influence.

Critics say the bill, promoted by the Georgian Dream party and its pro-Russian billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, is an attempt to sabotage the country’s path toward further integration with the European Union and the West in general . Ivanishvili is a former prime minister who wields significant political influence.

Georgia was granted EU candidate status in December. The EU said the bill was “incompatible with European values” and could harm the country’s efforts to become a member of the bloc.

Supporters of the bill say it is necessary to promote political transparency, combat “pseudo-liberal values” promoted by foreign civil society groups, and preserve the country’s sovereignty.

Natalie Sabanadze, Georgia’s former ambassador to the EU, said the measure is known in Georgia as “Russian law” because it is “almost entirely modeled on laws passed in Russia in 2012 that virtually killed civil society,” referring to Russia’s political opposition. the opposition and groups that promote democratic rights and freedom of expression. Many Russians were silenced or forced to leave the country after these laws were passed in Russia.

In fact, Russia has used its foreign agents law to decimate political dissent and this is one of the reasons, along with the tight grip on Russia’s security state, that has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay in power for so long.

During the Russian presidential election:Vladimir Putin cements his longest reign since Stalin

Sabanadze said Georgians had been protesting the law in large numbers for weeks because the country had “a fairly vibrant civil society” and it was “understood that the new law puts that at risk.”

Last week, the United States said it was “deeply troubled” by the law. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was “alarmed by the democratic backsliding in Georgia.” Sullivan wrote on the social media platform against democratic values.

A “turning point” in US-Georgian relations?

After the vote passed, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien said the law “could be a turning point in what has been a constructive and productive partnership so far.” between Georgia and the United States. law “moves forward,” the United States will impose travel restrictions and financial sanctions against those involved in drafting and supporting the bill.

On Wednesday, Zurabishvili, Georgia’s president, said the nation was “going back to the past” with the new law, a reference to when Georgia was part of the Soviet Union.

Georgia: West or East?

Surveys show that the vast majority of Georgians favor closer ties with the West, even though their government has appeared in recent years to pull the country in the opposite direction.

In an interview in Tbilisi in 2022, Khazalia, the company’s owner, said that living in Georgia it was not always possible to see which political direction the country was going. “Is it in the West? Or in the East?” he said.

“Our government is a pro-Russian puppet”

On Tuesday, Khazalia said the adoption of “Russian law” had made the situation much clearer.

“Our government is a pro-Russian puppet,” he said, as he prepared to join Tuesday night’s protests. “Our only choice now is to show the world that we want to live in a democratic country.”

Khazalia said many businesses in Tbilisi have closed their doors and the protests bring together “all generations, all classes, all ages, all interests, all groups and ethnicities.”

Russian exiles flee to Georgia

“I also saw Russians,” he added, referring to the tens of thousands of exiles who have descended on Georgia since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, a source of tension in Tbilisi.

Yet much of the vagueness around Georgian politics has to do with its history and ties to Russia.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and Georgia became newly independent nations.

But in the years that followed, Russian-backed Georgian separatists sought to declare the independence of two regions, leading to war in 2008. The war ended within days, with Russian troops occupying the regions. Today, Abkhazia and South Ossetia (or the Tskhinvali region, as Georgians prefer to call it) remain under Russian control.

The conflict essentially meant that Russia had invaded the border parts of an independent country.

It also announced Moscow’s determination, said Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland, to “force a country considered within Russia’s sphere of influence to come into line.”

In fact, many Western international affairs scholars, like Fried, view Russian actions in Georgia in 2008 as a sort of prelude to the invasion of Ukraine. In 2014, Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea region of Crimea and supported separatists in Donbass, a vast industrial heartland in the east dotted with factories and coal-fired power plants.

Russia then launched a larger-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In both Georgia and Ukraine, while Russia seized its border regions, the rest of the country took steps to unite with the West. It has applied to become a member of the European Union economic bloc in March 2022. Like Ukraine, it aspires to join NATO, the military alliance that supports Western allies against Russian aggression.

Siding with Russia “would be political suicide”

Sabanadze, a former Georgian ambassador to the EU and now a senior fellow at the London think tank Chatham House, said the ruling Georgian Dream party had, in recent years, has disrupted the country’s vast “Euro-Atlantic trajectory” since its independence.

She attributed this largely to Georgian billionaire Ivanishvili and his connections to Russia, the country where he made all his money (in banking and metals). According to her, Ivanishvili probably thinks that Russia will win the war in Ukraine.

“On top of that, he is personally very angry with the EU and the US, has a conspiratorial mindset and believes that Americans and Europeans in particular are funding NGOs to undermine him,” she said .

Ivanishvili could not immediately be reached for comment. The Kremlin said the new Georgian law and the debate around it were being used to “provoke anti-Russian sentiment.”

“Of course, no political party in Georgia can claim that it is moving in the Russian direction,” said Sabanadze, who said that even the Georgian Dream party is careful not to openly express pro-Russian views while Around 80% of Georgians say they want rapprochement with Russia. links with the EU and NATO.

“It would be political suicide.”