Opinion: Georgia’s government turns to Moscow. Its Gen Z protesters aren’t having it | CNN (2024)

Editor’s Note: Will Cathcart is an American freelance journalist based in Tbilisi. He was previously a media adviser to Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Readmore opinionon CNN.

Tbilisi CNN —

Riot policeingas masksand balaclavasemergelike a dystopian infantry in the hazeof tear gas thatenvelopsRustaveli Avenue,theGeorgian capital’smain thoroughfare. Theysnatchprotestersfrom the crowdanddragthem back into amassofblack uniforms.Inside their ranks, thebeatings continue.

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Will Cathcart

Hundreds of thousandsof people have taken to the streetsacrossGeorgia in recent weeks to protest the government’s adoption of a Kremlin-inspired“foreign agents” bill.The legislation is a primer for autocracy.

The bill requiresNGOs andmedia organizationswho receivemore than 20% of theirfunding from abroad to register as“agents of foreign influence.”The law mirrors legislation passedby Russiain2012in response to protests against Vladimir Putin’s presidency. Putin used the lawtodismembercivil society,independent mediaand political opposition. The same happenedin Belarusand recentlyin Kyrgyzstan.

The new law is the latest in what looks like a concerted attempttosabotageGeorgia’srelationshipwith Western partners, polarize the population and allow the ruling party toremain in power.

Hans Gutbrod, a professor of public policy at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, told me that this “repress anyone we want”law will give thegovernment power to “monitor anyone they allege to be associating with foreign influence” and “request the most private information from any citizen or entity, including access to emails.”

On Tuesday, the bill wasapproved by lawmakers.As expected, President SalomeZourabichvilivetoed the billdays later, calling it unconstitutional,Russian “in its essence and spirit,”andanobstacle to European Union membership. Her movewill only buy time. Parliament has the votes to overrideher veto.

Georgians aren’t taking this lying down. Protestors – including many from Gen Z who were born in a newly independent Georgia and see their future with Europe – have staged mass demonstrations, the scale of which I have not seen in my more than 15 years living here.

Indeedhundreds of studentsfrom at least 40 universities declared a strike and joined the protest.

In response,riot police have unleasheda torrent of violence,usingtear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades, water cannons and bare fists– all to no avail. The pro-democracy protests have only grown in size and frequency.

Georgian students protest in Tbilisi on May 13 against the bill which would requireNGOs andmedia organizationswho receivemore than 20% of theirfunding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence."

Peddling misinformation

But there’s another bill tailored to the needs of the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder and honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Last month,his party fast-tracked a billthat eases the process of bringing offshore capital into Georgia. As with the foreign agents law, the bill’s authors claim it promotes transparency, an absurd notion.

Ivanishvili andhis cohort chronically peddle misinformation to maintain their brand of populism. The Georgian Dream party’s false claim isthat NGOs and protestors are Western-funded provocateurs of“the Global War Party”– apparentlyintent on regime change to open up a second front in Ukraine’s war with Russia that will render Georgia nothing more than“cannon fodder.”

Last month, the head of the Georgian Dream party in parliament, Mamuka Mdinaradze, claimed thatWestern NGOs area front fora“Soviet-style campaign”to discredit the Georgian judiciary, disseminate“pseudo-liberal ideology”and“so-called LGBTpropaganda,” and undermine “public trust in the Georgian Orthodox Church.” It’s a lot to take in.

Then there’s the Speaker of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili,announcingearlier this month that the government was compiling a “database” – essentially ablacklist for any opposition– “involved in violence, blackmail, threats and other illegal acts,” or “who publicly endorse these actions.” In other words, attending protests.

UponUSAssistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, James O’Brien’s arrival in Tbilisilast week,Ivanishvilirefused to meet with himsaying, “we won’t bow to Soviet-style instructions from abroad.”

Perhapsheshould also tell Russia, whichoccupies 20% of Georgia’s territory.

On Tuesday, the bill wasapproved by lawmakers.As expected, President SalomeZourabichvilivetoed the bill days later. But Parliament has the votes to overrideher veto.

US must also shift course

The Georgian government haschanged. Andif US policy does not reflect this change, then advocates for democracy will suffer the consequences.

Zviad Adzinbaia, a Doctoral Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,told methat if the US and EU sanction Ivanishvili, it’s crucial that they “clearly communicate the reasons to prevent Ivanishvili from blaming a nonexistent ‘Global War Party.’ He should understand that the Georgian people are not defenseless against their own government and Russian occupying forces.”

For Georgia’s ruling party, itis far more convenientto blame foreign powersthanaddress why thousands of one’s citizens arestanding in the street in helmets and gas masks.Ivanishvili’s obsessive fears maysoonbe a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For more than 20 years, some80% of Georgian peoplehave supported joining both NATO and the EU. In response,the United States hasshared intelligenceand poured resources into Georgiaforjoint military exercises,Combined Special Forces Exchange Training (JCET),counterterrorism efforts,anti-corruptioncoordinationand$6 billionin investment.

Despitetheir strategic partnership,Brussels and Washington can no longerassumeGeorgia’s alignment,much less a safe place for Western officials to reside.OnlyMoscow benefitsfrom the current discord.Western governmentsmust recognize what remains: an exposed flank in an ongoing and accelerating conflict with Russia.

Theforeign agentsbillis a symptom of adeeper issue – money.Ivanishvili’s political investmentsand appointment ofclose friendsandformer employeesto top cabinet positionsseems toensure loyalty to him rather than to the Georgian public.If the US and EU are to genuinely support the Georgian people, their policies must reflectthe harsh realitiesof Georgian Dream’s transformation.

The Georgian government has turned away from the West. The Georgian people have not.

The pressures ofauthoritarian intimidation and systematic violencehave hardened Georgia’s young protestors like diamonds. They are organized and optimistic. Theysee themselves as European. And they are not afraid.

Another generation of Georgians have learned their own strength. Georgia’s democratic future rests firmly in their hands.