Georgia rocked by protests as government pushes Vladimir Putin-style ‘foreign agent’ bill

From the article:

The ruling Georgian Dream party is trying to force through a “foreign agent” law, likened by critics to a measure introduced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to quash dissent. The draft law, which has passed the second of three votes, would require organizations in the former Soviet country that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face crippling fines.

Jafaridze, who also owns a travel business and says he receives 95% of his income from foreign sources, says he would “immediately” be listed as a foreign agent under the broadly-written law. But critics say the intended target of the legislation is not business owners like him, but Georgia’s independent media and civil society organizations, ahead of elections in October in which Georgian Dream, whose popularity is waning, is desperate to keep power.

Georgia’s government tried to pass the same law last year, but was forced into an embarrassing climbdown after a week of intense protests, which saw citizens waving EU flags buffeted back by water cannons. In a move widely seen as an effort to reward Georgia’s citizens – of whom about 80% support joining the bloc – and reverse the country’s drift towards Russia, the EU granted it candidate status in December.

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Eto Buziashvili, a former adviser to Georgia’s National Security Council who has attended most of the protests, said police on Tuesday night became “exceptionally brutal.” She told CNN she saw “many law enforcement officers who were not wearing identification marks. They were beating people, but we didn’t know they were with the police. This is very dangerous.”

Several protesters told CNN that the tear gas used was noticeably more potent than before, making it harder to breathe and forcing protesters briefly to disperse and regroup. Many fled to the April 9 Park, named after a night in 1989 where the Soviet Army tried to crush a pro-independence protest, killing 21 people and injuring hundreds. Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union exactly two years later.

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Many Georgians feel deep hostility toward Russia, which invaded Georgia in 2008 and occupies about 20% of its internationally recognized territory – about the same proportion it occupies in Ukraine. Despite recent Russian aggression against Georgia, Georgian Dream has long been accused of harboring pro-Russian sympathies and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, made his fortune in the Soviet Union.

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Ivanishvili, once a frontline politician but now a reclusive figure, made a rare appearance Monday night, addressing a crowd of counter-protesters after thousands of people were bussed to Tbilisi from Georgia’s rural regions, where Georgian Dream enjoys more support.

His speech showed deep paranoia, conspiracism and had an autocratic streak. Ivanishvili claimed Georgia was being controlled by “a pseudo-elite nurtured by a foreign country.” He claimed the world was run by a “Global War Party,” which he suggested was responsible for Russia’s 2008 invasion. And he pledged to persecute his political opponents after October’s elections.

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The United States has criticized Georgia’s recent shift. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the foreign agent legislation and Georgian Dream’s “anti-Western rhetoric put Georgia on a precarious trajectory.”

Kobakhidze has hit back at the US criticism and on Friday accused Washington of attempting to stoke a revolution in Georgia “carried out through NGOs financed from external sources.”

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As the protests show no sign of slowing, some have questioned whether they could swell into something resembling a revolution. “If this government doesn’t withdraw this bill now, when they still have the chance, it will be hard for them to get to the elections. It’s a spiral at the moment,” said Sabanadze.