Tbilisi, Georgia – Crowds of demonstrators have braved tear gas and plastic bullets for more than two weeks to protest the Georgian government’s draft law against civil society.
The new law would require non-profit organizations (NGOs and media companies) that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations pursuing the interests of foreign influence,” with harsh penalties of up to for non-compliance threaten to pay $9,000.
Mass demonstrations last year forced the government to withdraw a similar bill. This second attempt has re-energized thousands of young people, from high school students to university students, and fueled a wave of discontent.
They believe their government has fallen under the influence of the Kremlin and is sabotaging their dreams of being part of Europe. Every evening the rallies began with the Georgian national anthem and the EU Ode to Joy.
“This is where I live, where my son will live – I don’t want Georgia to fall into the hands of the enemy. “I want it to be free for everyone,” complains 25-year-old Giga.
“No to Russian law!” says Nutsa, 17. She holds up a poster that says: “Northern neighbor, we have nothing in common with you.”
That northern neighbor is Russia, where Vladimir Putin’s 2012 foreign agents law eliminated dissent. In 2022, he expanded it to require anyone receiving support from outside Russia to register and declare themselves as a foreign agent.
But Georgia’s government has insisted its own law is similar to the laws of Western countries.
The EU disagrees that the law is similar to Western transparency regulations, such as the planned EU and French directives and the US Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, warned on May 1 that Georgia was “at a crossroads.”
Washington is alarmed. The country has provided nearly $6 billion in aid to Georgia since the 1990s. U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan said in a statement on May 2 that the U.S. government had invited Georgian Prime Minister Iraqi Kobakhidze to high-level talks “with the most senior leaders.”
According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, this invitation was rejected later in the day. Instead, Kobakhidze accused the US of supporting “revolutionary attempts” by non-governmental organizations operating in the country, such as the EU-funded organizations Transparency International Georgia and ISFED, which often draw attention to corruption and abuse of power in the government.
The government may fear that these organizations could influence the outcome of a parliamentary election in October in which the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party hopes to win a majority.
Kornely Kakachia, director of the Georgian Institute of Politics, said he believes the government’s rhetoric reflects the opinion of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the ruling party.
He adds that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 changed Ivanishvili’s calculus.
“Ivanishvili and the GD leaders believe that Russia is winning in Ukraine, and he is just thinking [of] how to be friendly with [Russia]to find its place in this geopolitical realignment,” says Kakachia.
In parallel with its foreign financing law, GD has promised to restrict LGBT rights and passed changes to the tax code that make it easier to transfer funds into Georgia from abroad.
“This is an attempt to basically lure Putin and the Kremlin into giving them a new model of Georgia, which will be a kind of offshore zone for Russian oligarchs,” Kakachia says.
Hired thugs and “robocops”
The nightly protests over the last two weeks saw the largest voter turnouts in the 11 years of the GD government.
On Thursday, demonstrators blocked an important intersection, the so-called Heroes’ Square. But a group of unknown men in civilian clothes appeared and started beating people.
During the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, where people demanded closer ties with the EU and protested against corruption, thugs called Titushky were used by the Ukrainian security services.
Professor Ghia Nodia of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development said the moment felt similar to Ukrainian President Yanukovych’s decision a decade ago to use violence to crush protests.
“There is a feeling that Ivanishvili has gone too far this time and people have to fight. There are relatively small violent crackdowns almost every day, but so far the wave of protests has not receded.”
The protests were mostly peaceful, although some demonstrators tried to break into parliament, where lawmakers were debating inside.
Defiant men and women wave EU and Georgian flags in front of units of black, body-armored riot police called “robocops” armed with batons, maces and shields.
Other masked police officers without badges were filmed punching, kicking and dragging demonstrators by their hair into custody.
Face masks were emptied in hardware stores. Pepper spray and tear gas quickly incapacitate those without protection, their eyes and noses water from the chemicals, and many of them choke or have difficulty breathing.
The country is highly polarized. Mikheil Saakashvili, whose reforms after the 2004 “Rose Revolution” did much to modernize Georgia, is serving a six-year prison sentence. He was found guilty of “abuse of power” and organizing an attack on an opposition MP. His party, the United National Movement (UNM), is the strongest opposition party but is extremely unpopular due to its own track record since its term in office in the second half of the 2000s.
“Democracy backsliding”?
Many of today’s protesters do not identify with the UNM or any other political opposition party.
MEPs in Strasbourg and Brussels have repeatedly voted on resolutions condemning the DG’s “backsliding” in democracy in recent years and the treatment of the former president.
However, a group of protesters told Al Jazeera that the European Parliament was wrong to call for sanctions against Ivanishvili while simultaneously calling for Saakashvili’s release.
In power, GD earned the credit for giving Georgian citizens the right to travel to Schengen states within the EU without a visa. After Russia invaded Ukraine, it submitted its application for EU candidacy.
However, EU leaders are beginning to doubt that it is a serious partner. They have called on the Georgian government to implement reforms to prevent oligarchs from taking over the state.
But this is unacceptable for Bidzina Ivanishvili. On April 29, he addressed tens of thousands of people who, according to a GD leader, had traveled by bus from other parts of the country to take part in a counter-protest.
It showed that the government can reach out to large numbers of supporters if it wants, although the tired-looking attendees showed little energy or enthusiasm for being there.
In his speech, Ivanishvili outlined his government’s new narrative from an autocue: a Western-led global power was trying to strip Georgia of its autonomy and push it into another war with Russia.
“The funding of NGOs, which they often grant us and see as help, is used almost exclusively to empower the agents and put them in power,” he said. “Their only goal is to deprive Georgia of its state sovereignty.”
“Slave Law”
On an evening during this week’s protests, printouts of Ivanishvili’s picture with the word “Russian” written on his forehead lie scattered in a park near the parliament building in Tbilisi.
As protesters make their way to a rally outside, they rub and tear the paper beneath their feet. Bikers roar through the streets and the crowd cheers and chants “Sakartvelo!” (“Georgia!”).
Twenty-year-old Shota carries boxes of mineral water to distribute to the demonstrators. He says he paid for it himself.
“For us, for our generation, the European future comes first,” he says. “That’s why we stand here with our finances, with some strength, and we will remain standing until the politicians withdraw the slave law they want to pass.”
GD is expected to pass its foreign agents bill in third reading on May 17, and it remains unclear whether the government or its opponents are prepared to risk a dramatic showdown on the streets.
But if previously divided opposition parties now find a way to unite, it could make it more difficult for the government to win the October election. The summer heat came early to Tbilisi. And it will only intensify as the election countdown continues.