President Vetoes Foreign Agents’ Law (Civil Georgia)

Related:

NATO-backed protests in Georgia raise prospect of another “color revolution” in South Caucasus

Opponents claim that the law is the handiwork of the Kremlin. The Russian government implemented a similar measure several years ago, and the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party is labeled as pro-Moscow. Demonstrators are holding aloft signs that read, “F**k Putin,” “Slaves,” “Russians.” The US and the EU have both denounced the country’s government for allying itself with Russia.

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In an extraordinary breach of diplomatic protocol, the foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Iceland—countries that do nothing that they are not told to do by Washington and Brussels—went to Tbilisi on Wednesday and joined the marches. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna boasted of his presence there, posting footage of himself striding along with protesters on his X page. This would be the equivalent of Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik showing up at the antigovernment demonstrations in Washington and taking selfies.

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, after years of attempting to ingratiate itself with Washington and Brussels while still retaining ties with Russia, finds itself trapped. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who blamed NATO expansion for provoking the war in Ukraine, refers to the Western alliance as the “global party of war.” He expresses fears within the Georgian ruling elite, which are held more broadly in the population, of what is in store for them. 

However, as over a decade of ever-closer relations with the White House and the EU show, if Georgian Dream could come to some sort of livable arrangement with the US and is allies, it would. And the US continues to try to establish its control over the “pro-Russian” forces in the south Caucasus. Assistant Secretary of State O’Brien, who arrived in Tbilisi this week, sought to meet with the party’s billionaire financier, Bidzina Ivanishvili. He has thus far reportedly been turned down.

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While economic and social demands are absent from the demonstrations, militaristic patriotism abounds. A May 10 article in Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) noted, for instance, “Georgian flags are ubiquitous at the demonstrations,” The US-funded news service went on to highlight the political outlook of law student Zviad Tsetskhladze, “who helped start the student marches” and “is one of the leaders of a youth group called Dafioni (‘Sunset’), which has come to prominence during these protests.”

“The group,” reports the press outlet, “raised eyebrows at one early protest by having members swear an oath to “defend Georgia’s statehood… In Tsetskhladze’s Facebook profile photo, he is wearing camouflage military gear, complete with a balaclava” and reports that he “love(s) military stuff.” He described fellow students as supporters of pro-Western and “libertarian” parties.

PM: Ivanishvili “Refused to Meet” with Assistant Secretary O’Brien, Cites Blackmail and Threats (Civil Georgia)

When asked whether possible sanctions against Ivanishvili would be grounds for dropping the law on foreign agents, Prime Minister Kobakhidze responded: “I would like to tell you that in recent months, there have been cases when Bidzina Ivanishvili refused to meet with other foreign diplomats and politicians.” He added, “The reason for the refusal was the same in all cases. Bidzina Ivanishvili said that he was already under de facto sanctions because he had frozen 2 billion [U.S.] dollars that he had entrusted to the West, but which turned up in the hands of the Global War Party.”

PM further said: “As soon as this blackmail and de facto sanctions end, any meeting can be held right away, but today, this is Bidzina Ivanishvili’s position on this topic. Therefore, just as such blackmail and threats did not fly since March 2022, when his funds were frozen after the war in Ukraine, neither will such blackmail and threats fly now. That is, no one can make Bidzina Ivanishvili take steps against the state by blackmail and threats. The sanctions in itself mean blackmail, the sanctions in themselves contain blackmail and threats, so it is not a serious topic considering all these circumstances.”

Kobakhidze, Wikipedia:

Between 2000 and 2001 he was the regional coordinator of the public education project of the United States Agency for International Development and, between 2006 and 2014, as a project expert and project manager at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)…He was also member of the “Open Society-Georgia Foundation”‘ committee of experts of the human rights and rule of law programme and member of the Georgian delegation to the Council of Europe between 2011 and 2012.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, Wikipedia

Civil Georgia, Wikipedia:

Civil Georgia (Georgian: სივილ ჯორჯია) is a Tbilisi-based free daily news website run by Georgian NGO UN Association of Georgia. It is supported by USAID, Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the grants of which cover about 98% of the website’s expenses.