US warns Georgia not to side with Russia against the west
Crackdown on protests in ex-Soviet state over ‘Kremlin-inspired’ law
Georgia was warned by the United States government yesterday not to become an adversary of the west by falling back in line with Moscow as its parliament defied mass street protests to pass “Kremlin-inspired” legislation.
The US assistant secretary of state, Jim O’Brien, said the passing by Georgia’s parliament of a “foreign agents” bill yesterday could be yet another “turning point” in the former Soviet state’s troubled history.
In comments that appeared to signal a conviction in Washington that the Georgian government was once again aligning with Russia, O’Brien suggested US funding could soon be pulled.
Billions of dollars had been spent by the US on rebuilding Georgia after the fall of the Soviet Union, and hundreds of millions more were planned for the country’s economy and military, he said. “All that has to be under review if we are now regarded as an adversary and not a partner,” O’Brien told reporters at a press conference in Tbilisi.
The US official was speaking as the controversial “foreign agents” bill was backed by 84 MPs to 30 in defiance of demonstrations that have brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets of Tbilisi. Outside the parliament building, masked riot police used teargas in a vain attempt to disperse one of the largest protests seen so far while inside MPs brawled over the country’s future.
Peaceful protests continued after nightfall, with throngs of demonstrators marching to Heroes Square about 2km from parliament and blocking off the surrounding streets.
Under the law adopted yesterday, media or civil society groups in Georgia that receive more than 20% of their funding
from abroad will have to register as “organisations serving the interests of a foreign power”.
The US state department has labelled the bill “Kremlin-inspired”, as it has echoes of legislation introduced into the Russian statute books in 2012 by Vladimir Putin, which many people say has been used to silence critics.
O’Brien said the strategic relationship with Georgia had been put at risk by the law and a stepping up of antiwestern rhetoric in recent days.
Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, claimed on Monday that the country was being victimised by a US-led “global party of war”, in language that had echoes of that used by the Kremlin over the west’s aid to Ukraine. O’Brien described the comments as “unreal and a complete misunderstanding of the international community’s relationship with Georgia”. He said: “If the law goes forward without conforming to EU norms and [with] this kind of rhetoric and aspersion against the US and others, I think the relationship is at risk.”
He also criticised the billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, who is widely thought to drive government policy.
O’Brien had asked for a meeting with Ivanishvili but it had been rejected on the grounds that the US had frozen $2bn of his money through “de facto” sanctions, Kobakhidze had told reporters on Monday.
O’Brien said there were no sanctions on Ivanishvili “at this point” and that “for such an individual to be so badly misinformed is shocking and disappointing”. He went on to claim that the comments suggested that the prime minister had put the “individual interests” of one billionaire over Georgia’s constitutional commitment to a working relationship with Nato.
He also warned that the US was prepared to impose sanctions on Georgian government ministers and officials over the crisis.
He said: “If the law advances against EU norms and there is an erosion of democracy and violence against peaceful demonstrators, we will see restrictions from the United States. There will be financial and/ or travel restrictions specifically on those responsible and their families.”
He also called for the Georgian police to respect the peaceful protests in Tbilisi and for those found to have used excessive force to be arrested and prosecuted.
A series of leaders of the opposition have been badly beaten on the streets by unidentified gangs while footage has been captured of protesters being punched and kicked by police.
After a fresh outbreak of police violence yesterday, some protesters were treated by medics after teargas was used on a noisy but seemingly peaceful crowd while squads of police dragged individuals away.
The violence spread into the chamber, with a dozen MPs fighting and one MP, from the governing Georgian Dream party, being held back by security guards as he violently lurched at the chair of the main opposition, Levan Khabeishvili.
Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, issued a statement of solidarity as images of the unrest spread around the world. “Dear Georgian people,” it began. “We hear you and stand with you in your struggle for the European future of Georgia. Nobody has the right to take your European dream away. Nobody has the right to silence the will of the people to live by values.”
Georgian Dream is accused of undoing the progress made since the 2003 Rose revolution, when a nonviolent movement brought an end to an administration that was Soviet in style and corrupt in practice.
The party was elected 12 years ago after those who drove the changes in Georgian politics in the early 2000s were blamed for antagonising Russia, leading to an invasion and war.
The European Commission restated its position yesterday that the law would undermine Georgia’s application to join the European Union. On Monday, students at 30 Georgian universities went on strike in protests backed by lecturers.
Tina Bokuchava, parliamentary leader of the opposition United National Movement, said: “I am confident that the unity seen on our streets in recent weeks will prove a watershed moment in our nation’s history. Our rightful place is in Europe – but the Ivanishvili stranglehold must be broken first if this dream is to be realised.”