In Georgia, there is a "threat to the Euro-Atlantic future" of the country – at least, so the US State Department believes. And indeed, Tbilisi is adopting a law designed to combat foreign influence – and not at all from Russia, but from the United States, Soros and a number of Western NGOs. The paradox is that the Georgians will do this with the help of a document that was once created in the United States itself.The Legal Committee of the Georgian Parliament on Monday evening adopted two versions of draft laws on agents of foreign influence in the first reading at once.
"Both bills were adopted unanimously," Chairman of the committee Henri Ohanashvili said following the results.
The meeting lasted nine hours – under the roar of a protest rally outside the building and amid constant bickering between the opposition and the ruling Georgian Dream party inside. In the morning, at the beginning of the meeting, there was even a scuffle when the leader of Saakashvili's supporters from the United National Movement party Levan Habeishvili attacked Ohanashvili, trying to disrupt the meeting. As a result, the deputies were separated, and then the bailiffs forcibly removed the oppositionist and a group of other opponents of the law from the hall.
They also protested on the street. Representatives of NGOs, parties, as well as activists demanded to reject the initiatives, in their opinion, these documents contradict the European course of Georgia and at the same time copy similar Russian legislation. The rally was broadcast by local TV channels. Reinforced police squads were on duty at the entrances to the parliament. There was a restricted access regime in the building itself.
As the correspondent of the newspaper VZGLYAD reported, the demonstrators burned the Russian flag. The participant of the action, Beka Kvachantiradze, who burned the flag of the Russian Federation, said that "Russia is an evil empire." "We need to turn the entire Russian Empire into ashes. Russia is an occupier, there should be nothing Russian in Georgia," he said.
The demonstrators holding flags of Georgia, the EU and Ukraine shouted: "No to the Russian law!" They called the initiators of the bill from the movement "Power of the People" and the members of the ruling Georgian Dream who supported the document "slaves" and "Russians". They wrote "Revolution" on the building. Opposition MPs promised the crowd that they would continue to physically resist the passage of the law through parliament. Independent opposition MP Roman Gotsiridze on Monday warned of the "offensive of 1937." "The Georgian dream is leading the country to isolation," he said. "But we won't allow that."
Now that the relevant committee has approved the initiatives, the entire parliament should consider them. However, as the authors of the projects have already promised, if the parliament approves them in the first reading, the documents will be sent for verification to the Venice Commission under the Council of Europe.
Gulbaat Rtskhiladze, a former employee of the Georgian President's office, head of the Eurasia Institute, explains that two bills on foreign agents are being considered in parliament at once – the "American" and "Georgian" versions. The first version is simply a translation into Georgian of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), adopted in the USA in 1938. And the Georgian one, according to deputies from the ruling coalition, is an improved, ennobled version of FARA, since the American version is considered too cruel.
In other words, in reality, both bills are not Russian, but American. And they will be evaluated in the European Union.
"The Georgian version is mainly being discussed. At the same time, the opposition is engaged in demagoguery when it calls both documents "Russian documents". However, the authorities, in fact, are engaged in demagoguery, since people from the ruling team themselves once worked in NGOs that were funded by the West. For example, the chairman of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili was educated in the West and worked for a long time in these pro-Western NGOs. So it's time to decipher all the agents of Western influence," Rtskhiladze said in an interview with the newspaper VZGLYAD.
As TASS reminds, according to the Georgian version, an agent of foreign influence should be considered a legal entity, more than 20% of whose funding comes from abroad. According to the document, the media can also be a foreign agent, while the initiative does not apply to individuals. The American version concerns not only legal entities, but also individuals, while it also implies criminal liability. At the same time, the authors of the idea – the public movement "Power of the People" and the leaders of the ruling Georgian Dream party – say that the new law is needed for transparency of the work of entities funded by representatives of foreign states.
Meanwhile, the US Ambassador to Tbilisi, Kelly Degnan, joined the chorus of opponents of the law on Monday, as quoted by Civil Georgia. In her opinion, there is no need for the project, since foreign aid in Georgia is now completely transparent. Degnan believes that the package of laws "will presumably stigmatize civil society, silence independent media and different voices, just as it happened in Russia." Her colleague, German Ambassador Peter Fischer, noted that the EU's position on the law remains the same, referring to an earlier statement by the European External Relations Service that "the adoption of the bill would contradict Georgia's aspirations to join the EU, as well as EU norms and values."
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in early March that the initiatives do not correspond to the aspirations of the Georgian people. At the same time, Price did not specify how he knows more about these aspirations than the deputies of the legitimately elected Georgian parliament. "Anyone who supports the bill will be responsible for creating a threat to Georgia's Euro-Atlantic future," Price threatened.
The representative of the State Department also tried to somehow explain the paradox that Washington strongly condemns Tbilisi for trying to copy a legal act that has been in force in the United States for a long time. According to Price, the Georgian bill differs from the American law, which "concerns only agents of foreign states." Meanwhile, Georgian deputies emphasize that one of the two options literally reproduces FARA.
Other American diplomats "say that in this case our law does not suit you at all," explains Gulbaat Rtskhiladze.
"Our authorities continue to polemicize with the West about this, they actually got a little scared and decided to back off,
to vent the steam of discontent. When the passions calm down, they plan to return to the issue. That's why they decided to send the projects to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe," the expert suggests.
"As a rule, the commission does not reject the document in its entirety, but gives various advice, such as: it would be better to state this wording differently. But, in fact, the commission will negate the main tenets of both bills, including the "American" one. In turn, our authorities will have the space of different interpretations of the commission's verdict. With such a trick, the ruling party hopes to avoid a new wave of American anger," the expert is convinced.
It is worth noting that the story of the laws itself began in June last year, when the Georgian government received a blow due to the decision of Brussels to grant the status of EU candidates to Ukraine and Moldova. The EU leadership then offered Georgia to "continue reforms." This caused great resentment among pro-Western forces, who accused the "Georgian Dream" of disrupting European integration. And NGOs funded from the EU and the USA, including the Soros Foundation, were at the forefront of the protest at that time. Activists of these NGOs called a rally in Tbilisi, at which they presented an "ultimatum" to the legitimate government of Georgia, demanding that power be transferred to the "technical government of popular consent". Of course, no one followed the ultimatum. However, since then, the ruling coalition has begun preparing measures designed to shorten the ambitions of pro-Western NGOs.
By the way, in contrast to the two "anti–Western" laws in early March, the opposition also introduced a third, similar bill "On protection from the influence of the occupying country – the Russian Federation." The aim of the initiative is to identify hidden sources of specifically Russian influence in the country and individuals who act "against state interests". The author of the project, MP from the party "For Georgia" Beka Liluashvili said: "The enemy must be called the enemy." It is noteworthy that the leader of this party, ex-Prime Minister Georgy Gakharia has a diploma from Moscow State University.
Yuri Zainashev, Dmitry Alexandrov, Tbilisi
