Demonstrations involving some 10,000 protestors opposed to a Russia-style “foreign agent” law took to the streets of Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, last week. They were met in front of the Parliament building by police who used water cannons and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds. The protesters responded with rocks, and in a few isolated incidents, Molotov cocktails. In the end, the country’s Russia-aligned ruling party, Georgian Dream, conceded and withdrew the proposed bill, at least for now.
It remains to be seen how long the withdrawal lasts.
This incident is merely the most recent example of the complicated, often opaque methods that pro-Russian actors employ in their attempts to retain influence abroad, especially in countries which were once part of the Soviet Union.
A Russian-style law
The bill in question was not actually proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which was founded by and is still understood to be closely aligned with Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Georgian billionaire who amassed much of his fortune in Russia in the 1990s. It was put forward by an “opposition” party that shows all the hallmarks of having been created by Georgian Dream in an attempt to deflect criticism for legislation that was all but certain to be met with public outcry.
The methods were simple. In June 2022, three members of the ruling Georgian Dream party—Dmitry Khundadze, Sozar Subari, and Mikhail Kavelashvili—announced that they were leaving the party to form a new movement called “Power of the People.” They claimed to be opposition members, but their public rhetoric and political positions continued to coincide fully with Georgian Dream’s open criticism of Western-style liberalism and its emphasis on “traditional values.”
On February 14, 2023, “Power of the People” submitted a bill to the Georgian parliament concerning the “Transparency of Foreign Influence.” The authors proposed to create a register of “foreign agents” in Georgia, which would include all non-profit legal entities and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad, or else face a fine ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 lari ($3,800-$7,600 U.S.).
“Power of the People” participants emphasized that the goal of the law was to “inform,” not to restrict the activities of NGOs and media outlets. According to the authors, they wanted to ensure “transparency of foreign influence” in the country. In addition, they claimed to have used American experience, namely the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), in developing the proposed bill.
The US State Department disagreed.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the bill was “based on similar Russian and Hungarian laws, not on FARA or any other American law.”
While the American law requires lobbyists in the pay of foreign governments to disclose their sources of funding, it does not restrict their right or ability to work on behalf of foreign interests. The Russian law, however, has been used mainly as a tool of domestic repression, leading to editorially independent outlets, including “Voice of America,” being labeled as “foreign agents.” The list also includes indigenous Russian civil society groups like the “Soldiers’ Mothers of Saint Petersburg,” who organized in opposition to Russia’s 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine.
When the proposed bill was announced, the European Union quickly issued a formal statement declaring that passage of the foreign agent law would be a serious impediment to Georgia’s stated goal of gaining EU membership.
“The law in its current form risks having a chilling effect on civil society and media organizations, with negative consequences for the many Georgians benefiting from their work,” Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a statement released on March 7. “This law is incompatible with EU values and standards. Its final adoption may have serious repercussions on our relations.”
The “Georgian Dream” is not a European Dream
Although the pursuit of both EU and NATO membership are enshrined in the Georgian constitution as aims which the government in Tbilisi is obligated to follow, the ruling Georgian Dream party is widely suspected of taking actions that would impede Georgia’s accession to both institutions.
“When Georgia applied for candidate status in the EU, unfortunately, our authorities did everything to prevent this application from going any further because they did not actually want to submit it,” Salome Samadashvili, the Political Secretary of the opposition Lelo Party, told Newsweek.
Rather than openly pursuing pro-Russian initiatives, Georgian Dream has instead used the cover of legality, as it did regarding the “foreign agent” law, to implement policies which would delay or derail the country’s westward movement.
“More than 80% of Georgians want to go to Europe, join NATO, and be part of the West,” Samadashvili explained. “Politicians who openly support Russia get no more than two to three percent of the vote here. People here are very clearly anti-Russian. Therefore, it disguised itself, and unfortunately, many people were deceived.”
“I think they have clear instructions not to get [European Union] candidate status because that is not in Russia’s interests,” she added. “Russia wants the ‘Georgian Dream’ to remain in power, already with an openly anti-European position.”
The Growth of the Protest Movement
On February 28, a total of 63 Georgian media outlets issued a joint statement refusing to register as foreign agents should the draft bill actually be signed into law.
Demonstrations involving some 10,000 protestors opposed to a Russia-style “foreign agent” law took to the streets of Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, last week. They were met in front of the Parliament building by police who used water cannons and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds. The protesters responded with rocks, and in a few isolated incidents, Molotov cocktails. In the end, the country’s Russia-aligned ruling party, Georgian Dream, conceded and withdrew the proposed bill, at least for now.
