Rustaveli Avenue, named after the great medieval poet of the Golden Age of Georgia, has been on a warpath for a month. The reason tens of thousands of protesters gather in the very center of Tbilisi is the government’s insistence on introducing a law on “foreign agents”. A year ago, the opposition, which considers it inspired by the Kremlin, managed to back down with massive demonstrations.
This week, the police violently broke up the protests. On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, 63 people were arrested. In the early hours of yesterday, tens of thousands of dissatisfied people gathered in front of Parliament in the largest anti-government demonstration of this year. Georgian and European Union flags flew, and the Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, played. The riot police in this small former Soviet republic of the Caucasus (3.7 million inhabitants) used tear gas and stun grenades. Also water cannons against a small group that tried to block the side entrance to Parliament.
Leván Ioseliani, Public Defender of Georgia, called for an investigation for “disproportionate use of force.” Leván Jabeishvili, leader of the main opposition party, the United National Movement of imprisoned former president Mikhail Saakashvili, was brutally beaten.
The EU and the United States have condemned the “violence” of the police. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, described it as “unacceptable” on Wednesday.
Supporters of the law, which is officially called the “Foreign Influence Transparency Act,” say Georgia will strengthen its sovereignty. Prime Minister Irakli Kobajidze maintains that he is not giving up integration into Europe. “If we do not defend the sovereignty of the State, it will happen to us like Ukraine, and peace and European integration will be a thing of the past. Without sovereignty you cannot enter Europe,” he said.
Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former prime minister, believes the West is trying to pit Georgia against Russia. At a rally on Monday he promised to join the EU in 2030. And he criticized “non-transparent NGOs” for being an instrument of destabilization and “the main instrument for the appointment of a Georgian government from abroad.”
The opposition, on the contrary, maintains that the new rules are a copy of the law on “foreign agents” that has been in force in Russia since 2012 and that has served the Kremlin to blacklist the opposition and any dissenting voice. The Kremlin has said that the Georgian law is not “Russian.”
According to the project, a non-profit organization or a media outlet could be classified as an organization that exercises the interests of a foreign power if more than 20% of its financing comes from outside the country. They should register with the Ministry of Justice at the risk of being sanctioned with fines of 10,000 to 25,000 laris (2,500 to 8,700 euros).
Mamuka Mdinaradze, spokesperson for the Georgian Dream parliamentary group, rejected criticism from the US and Europe, claiming that there are similar laws in other countries, such as those in force in the US since the 1930s.
The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan approved a similar law in February. The difference is that it only applies to NGOs that participate in political activities. The Georgian project does not include this clause. That is why the opposition criticizes that it could affect the majority of NGOs and media.
Georgia, which lost a brief war with Russia in 2008, has been trying to deepen its relations with the West for two decades, since the 2003 Rose Revolution led by Saakashvili. That aspiration is part of their Constitution and more than 80% of Georgians, according to polls, share it. In 2022, after the Russian army entered Ukraine, Georgia submitted its candidacy to the EU, and in 2023 it obtained the status of a candidate country.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday asked Tbilisi to “stay the course” towards the EU. In the Georgian capital, Gert Jan Koopman, director general of the European Commission’s Enlargement Directorate, warned that this project is unacceptable and would pose a serious obstacle to his accession hopes.
This May 1, the deputies approved the project in second reading. There remains a third and definitive reading. To become law it needs the signature of the president of Georgia, Salomé Zurabishvili, in conflict with the Government. She has already said that she will veto it. But Georgian Dream has enough of a majority to override the veto and get its way.
