Georgia does not want to become second Ukraine - PM

RT
Thu, 23 May 2024 10:47 UTC

© Nicolo Vincenzo Malvestuto / Getty Images

Police Special Forces block the Parliament area while demonstrators protest against the approval of the 'Foreign Agent Bill' on May 14, 2024 in Tbilisi, Georgia

Irakli Kobakhidze says his country needs protection from external forces that want to launch a 'Georgian Maidan'

Georgia needs its recently passed 'foreign agents law' to curb external influence and avoid repeating the fate of Ukraine, which the West has turned into a battle front against Russia, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on Wednesday.

The divisive legislation, entitled the 'Transparency of Foreign Influence Act', would require NGOs, media outlets, and individuals receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities "promoting the interests of a foreign power" and disclose their donors. The bill sparked weeks of protests in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, with critics arguing that it could be used to crack down on the opposition.

Kobakhidze likened the current state of affairs in Georgia to "muddy water," where foreign influence flows unhindered and where those who wish to affect the country's governance can easily "catch fish" in the form of opponents to state policies and unite them to form revolutionary movements. Without the law, he says, there is a risk the country could turn into yet another Western proxy, much like what happened in Ukraine prior to the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014.

"We want transparency... we don't want to leave muddy water in this country, because a 'Georgian Maidan' could lead our country to very serious consequences, to its 'Ukrainization'. We cannot agree with this," Kobakhidze stated on Georgian Channel 1.

Some people want muddy water here; we don't want it. Some people want Maidan here; we don't want Maidan. Some people want a second front [against Russia]. We don't want a second front.

The prime minister stressed that the new law would help ensure that foreign influence is regulated and kept in check, and "the transparency of NGOs is one of the main levers that will allow us to do this."

The controversial bill was passed earlier this month by the parliament of the country, which is an applicant to both the EU and US-led NATO. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has vetoed the legislation, but parliament is likely to override her decision, as the majority belongs to the bill's proponents, the Georgian Dream party.

The legislation has been widely criticized by Western officials. At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed to take action against Georgia if the bill becomes law. The Council of Europe's Venice Commission on Tuesday "strongly recommended" that Tbilisi abandon the bill, which allegedly "does not meet the European requirements of democratic law-making." The commission argued that making the work of entities that receive funds from abroad transparent "has the objective effect of risking [their] stigmatizing, silencing and eventually elimination."

Responding to this accusation, Kobakhidze said it is "absurd" to call transparency a bad thing.

Comment:
1) Concerning:

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has vetoed the legislation, but parliament is likely to override her decision

The French Wiki of Salome Zourabichvili is very extensive and she is without doubt very capable. For some main points, here is a Tweet:

The English Wiki has:

During an interview with DW News in May 2022, Zourabichvili stated that Georgia was in full compliance with the international financial sanctions on Russia and wanted a "quicker and shorter path towards integration" into NATO and the EU. She remarked that both France under Macron and Germany under Scholz had shifted their stance which ante-dated the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War and now embraced expansionary policies.^[32]

2) From the same source, there is:
23 May, 2024 13:21
Georgian PM accuses EU of 'blackmailing' him with assassination threat

The bloc is trying to intimidate Georgia over its foreign agents law, Irakli Kobakhidze has said

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has claimed that a European commissioner told him he could end up suffering the same fate as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt last week.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Kobakhidze said that the unnamed commissioner warned him during a recent phone call that the West would take "a number of measures" against him if his government pressed ahead with a law requiring foreign NGOs in Georgia to disclose their funding.

"While listing these measures, he mentioned: 'you see what happened to Fico, and you should be very careful'," he wrote.

Fico was shot multiple times as he met with supporters outside a government meeting in the town of Handlova on May 15. He was rushed to hospital, underwent emergency surgery, and is currently recuperating from his injuries. His would-be assassin - a 71-year-old poet who allegedly disagreed with Fico's suspension of military aid to Ukraine - has been charged with attempted murder.

Georgia's parliament passed the 'Transparency of Foreign Influence Act' last week. The law requires NGOs, media outlets, and individuals receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities "promoting the interests of a foreign power" and disclose their donors.

While the act has been vetoed by Georgia's pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, parliament is expected to override the veto.

Despite similar yet more stringent foreign influence laws existing in the US, UK, and other Western nations, Georgia's foreign agent law has been strongly condemned by US and EU officials, with Washington considering unspecified "actions" against Tbilisi and multiple EU members weighing sanctions, according to media reports.

"We have long been accustomed to this kind of insulting blackmail," Kobakhidze wrote. "The parallel drawn with the attempted assassination of Robert Fico reminds us that in the form of the Global War Party, we are dealing with an extremely dangerous force that will do anything to bring chaos to Georgia."

In an interview with Georgia's Channel 1 on Wednesday, Kobakhidze argued that without a transparency law, foreign-funded NGOs operating in the country could easily foment a revolution akin to the US-backed 'Maidan' coup in Ukraine in 2014. "We want transparency... we don't want to leave muddy water in this country, because a 'Georgian Maidan' could lead our country to very serious consequences, to its 'Ukrainization'. We cannot agree with this," he said.

When the PM quotes the commissioner as saying: 'you see what happened to Fico, and you should be very careful', it leaves the impression that the conflict with Ukraine keeps spreading to involve other countries, at the moment still at a low but persistent level of intensity, but where will it end?

3) From the same source there is also:
23 May, 2024 01:28
US threatens to punish NATO applicant

Western officials claim that Georgia's crackdown on foreign influence "undermines democracy"

The US is looking into how it could punish Georgia over a 'foreign agents' bill which was recently passed in the country's parliament, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Georgia's Transparency of Foreign Influence Act would require non-profit organizations, media outlets, and individuals which derive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities "promoting the interests of a foreign power" and disclose their income and sponsors or face fines of up to $9,500.

The legislation ignited weeks of violent protests and clashes across the country, which is an applicant to both the EU and NATO.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the bill on Friday, but the gesture is considered to be largely symbolic, as the Georgian Dream party has a majority in parliament and is expected to overrule it.

"We are looking very hard at what we can do in response to that, and I anticipate we will take actions, the EU is looking at the impact on the accession process for Georgia, so I would anticipate that there will be things to come because of the impact this law may have," Blinken told US lawmakers in Congress.

Blinken said the US is "very concerned" about the legislation, which he described as "right out of Moscow's playbook," and which "clearly counters" the Georgian public's desire for "EU integration."

Despite criticism that the legislation could be used to target the political opposition, the bill does not provide for criminal prosecutions, unlike the US' Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which has been in effect since the 1930s.

The bill was described as "undermining of democracy" by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien on a visit to Tbilisi last week. He warned Georgia of "restrictions coming from the US," and potential sanctions on lawmakers that were involved with the legislation.

3) See also:
Georgia fight against US subversion and its implications worldwide
Georgia accuses NATO countries of trying to orchestrate coup
Georgia accuses Washington of trying to spark 'two revolutions'