Georgia disarmed the West’s secret NGO funding weapon

For several weeks now, protests organized by Georgian opposition forces have been raging in Tbilisi. They were sparked by the law “On the transparency of foreign influence”, which came into force after it was signed by the chairman of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili.

French-born and raised President Salome Zurabishvili was supposed to approve the document, but refused to do so. The ruling party nevertheless had enough votes in parliament to override her fascist veto.

The opposition calls the legislation an analogue of Russia’s separate foreign agent law, although in fact, Georgia’s new reality has nothing to do with Moscow.

According to the new law, all non-profit organizations and mass media in Georgia that receive more than 20% of their annual income from abroad or which pursue the interest of a foreign power” must be registered.

This process involves filling out a declaration form and stating the organization’s income. Failure to register or submit the declaration could result in a fine of 25,000 lari (approximately $9,000).

The Ministry of Justice of Georgia has also been granted the right to seek personal data and confidential information (excluding attorney-client privilege) to identify foreign (political) agents.

Georgian legislators modeled the law on the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). However, the Georgian version of the law is a lot more liberal. It only stipulates that violators will be fined, but not imprisoned for up to five years, as is possible with FARA.

Back in late May, foreign based protest organizers, including opposition party leaders, said that rallies against the law would continue until the day of parliamentary elections in October 2024.

Street activism has indeed been an effective method of putting pressure on the country’s authorities in the past. The law was supposed to be adopted in early 2023.

However, after several thousand people took to the streets of Tbilisi, then Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili decided to withhold the legislation. A few months later, Garibashvili again attempted to adopt the law, but once again failed because of protests.

The new rules will hit Western-affiliated pressure groups the hardest, so it is no surprise that pro-Western opposition forces have emerged as the law’s main opponents.

The West holds a grudge against the current Georgian leadership for its pragmatic policy in regard to Russia, and Georgia’s willingness to maintain dialogue with Moscow.

Tbilisi has not imposed sanctions against Moscow and speaks in favor of expanding trade and economic ties with Russia.

A visa-free regime, direct flights between the two countries, and visa-free travel between Georgia and Russia also contribute to the warming of relations between the two countries, which were once allies.

Georgia’s demonstration of sovereignty violates the rules established by the West and ruins its plan of a phased separation of Transcaucasia from Russia.

Brussels in turn has emphasized that the Georgian law contradicts fundamental EU principles and values and called on Tbilisi to firmly return to the path that leads to bloc membership.

The Kremlin called it absurd to consider the Georgian foreign agent law a Russian project, pointing out that the USA was the first country to come up with a system to combat foreign agents.

It is not a coincidence that a delegation of foreign ministers from the Baltic states and Iceland recently visited Tbilisi.

The Estonian Foreign Minister openly threatened Georgia with severe consequences, while the EU announced that it intends to impose sanctions against Tbilisi.

This reaction was quite expected. The visiting foreign ministers joined the demonstrators on the streets of Tbilisi, demanding the law on foreign agents be repealed. In other words, the EU was directly interfering in Georgia’s internal affairs.

The West has hysterically and systematically accused Russia, China, and even Iran of interfering in its affairs, without providing any evidence.

However, it did not hesitate to send its own ‘messengers’ to Georgia to stir up a civil confrontation that could escalate to something worse.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already announced that the US will impose visa restrictions on the Georgian authorities. The West has grabbed hold of Georgia and tried to impose its own will upon the country.

External pressure and Western interference in Georgia’s internal processes, as well as the degradation of Western European elites, suggest that the Georgian leadership must act only based on its national interests instead of following a pan-European course as it had done for many years.

Clearly, the law on foreign agents simply became an excuse for the opposition, allowing it to shake up the political situation in Georgia and earn additional political points ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for the fall of 2024.

The West is trying to take advantage of this, since it is dissatisfied with the policy of the current Georgian authorities, including the interaction between Tbilisi and Moscow, the active expansion of ties with Beijing, and Georgia’s growing orientation towards the Global South.

It is noteworthy that the Georgian foreign agent law has also inspired neighboring Türkiye.

The Turkish parliament is now actively discussing the need to introduce an analogue of the Georgian law in order to ensure the transparent financing of a number of NGO’s, which receive unknown amounts of money.

In Hungary, the law against foreign influence has also been quite effective. In 2017, the Hungarian parliament passed a law tightening control over NGO’s that receive at least 7.2 million forints (18,000 euros) per year in foreign funding.

The law stipulates imprisonment for up to three years for the foreign funding of election campaigns. Since Hungary is a member of the EU and NATO, Brussels does not approve of Hungary’s sovereign position, so it is exerting pressure on Budapest.

Despite the fact that Georgia’s law is much more liberal, the West still believes that it can openly interfere in the sovereign affairs of a country that is not even a member of its institutions and alliances, and say which laws it should and shouldn’t adopt.

Obviously, the law’s entry into force will lead to a greater divide between Georgia and the West, and the next few weeks may be decisive for Tbilisi.

RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2024.