Thread by @Tom_deWaal

1 Pay attention to #Georgia 🇬🇪 today! A THREAD Last night police in Tbilisi forcibly dispersed a protest against a new Foreign Agent law rushed through parliament. It’s an escalation by the ever more authoritarian Georgian Dream govt

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1633335485069250561

2 For good coverage see the websites of @CivilGe
@JAMnewsCaucasus @OCMediaorg (and its @mari_nikuradze) All are small independent outlets, which are incidentally threatened by the new legislation. Also look at @formulaGe who had these iconic pictures

https://twitter.com/FormulaGe/status/1633162811671998480

3 The bill and crackdown are a massive challenge to the EU, which offered GE conditional candidate perspective last year. “This law is incompatible with EU values and standards. It goes against Georgia’s stated objective of joining the European Union,”
eeas.europa.eu/eeas/georgia-s…

4 Stage set for a big political crisis. Salome Zurabishvili, the president, condemns the bill, says she will veto it, but GD majority in parliament has numbers to override the veto. Still she can be a rallying point (more than weak formal opposition?)
jam-news.net/zurabishvili-s…

5 Possibly GD miscalculated, thinking this was an issue for Tbilisi professionals and had no public resonance. But condemnation has been broad. Academics, writers and even footballers can smell what this is: a big blow to Georgia’s European dreams.
jam-news.net/georgian-socie…

6 A few contrarian commentators say the law is nothing unusual. Yes, there are issues about foreign funding of NGOs. (Georgia is poor, its local donors tend to be political). But its very sinister legislation. @HansGutbrod can set you straight on this

https://twitter.com/HansGutbrod/status/1633242961549877248

7 And see this article by Giorgi Lomsadze on how the US comparison does not stand up
eurasianet.org/far-from-fara-…

8 More pertinent is that Bidzina Ivanishvili, GD founder and govt de facto godfather has transferred almost all his assets (worth $2bln) to his charitable Cartu Foundation. He clearly wants to be the sole big player in Georgia’s non-profit sector.
georgiatoday.ge/what-you-give-…

9 On the geopolitics of this: According to latest data from @crrcgeorgia, public support for EU membership remains very high at around 70 percent. (It’s dipped a bit in the last year as the government has gone to war rhetorically with the EU, but not by much.)

10 The idea that GD and Ivanishvili are “pro-Russian” is too crude. For sure the govt. has been very weak on condemning the Ukraine war. The political establishment writ large, including the MFA, remains pro-Western. GE has had no diplomatic relations with Russia since 2008.

11 I think the agenda is more isolationist, and to play up conservative nativist patriotic sentiments. The preferred state model looks more like Azerbaijan: balance between West and Russia, consolidate one-party rule, control institutions, end scrutiny of NGOs and journalists.

12 All told, it’s a big moment for Georgia, still a democracy, but definitely a struggling one. Sending solidarity today to all my Georgian friends.