Al Jazeera Net correspondents
Tbilisi- The Georgian Parliament adopted in a third reading the draft law on “foreign agents”, which sparked great controversy in the country, and was not without violence inside and outside Parliament, and before and after the vote, as the opposition forces believe that it restricts freedoms in the country, and describes it as Russian law.
Before its adoption, the authorities in Georgia It was severely criticized by European countries, which considered it undemocratic and directed against the Western system, and in favor of Moscow.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps compared the situation in Georgia to the war in… Ukrainedescribing the adoption of the draft law as a manifestation of “Russian interference in the affairs of Georgia,” and directly called on the citizens of Georgia to “resist Russia“.
On the eve of the vote, the Georgian government refused to receive a European delegation that came to the capital, Tbilisi, in what appears to be an attempt to dissuade Georgian officials from approving the draft law, which requires legal entities and media outlets whose funding comes more than 20% from abroad to declare their sources of income and show all their income received. Otherwise, a fine of 25 thousand Georgian lari ($9.5 thousand) will be imposed.
“Russian law”
The government insists that the law is necessary to prevent attempts to destabilize the political situation in the country, which, according to the authorities, are funded from abroad. While the opposition and civil society forces believe that the authorities will use the law to suppress critical voices, which will lead to the stifling of civil society, as happened with similar laws in Russia, as they put it.
Russia denies any involvement in the Georgian legislative process, as Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov once again stressed that Moscow does not interfere in Georgia’s internal affairs, noting that Western countries directly threaten the Georgian government with consequences if the foreign agents law is implemented.
As for Brussels, it renewed its call on Tbilisi to what it described as “returning to the European path and fulfilling all the obligations that its authorities voluntarily took upon themselves by applying to obtain candidate status for their country.”
In Berlin, the Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Bundestag, Michael Roth, called on the European Union to take “stern measures” against the Georgian leadership.
Safe distance
The director of the Russian Center for Political Forecasting, Denis Krkudinov, believes that the fears of the authorities in Georgia about exploiting civil society organizations to interfere in the country’s internal affairs justifies the enactment of laws of this kind that prevent this, and this is a policy adopted in many countries of the world.
He told Al Jazeera Net that the efforts of the authorities in Georgia to maintain a safe distance between Russia and the European Union brought them into conflict with advocates of the pro-Western liberal orientation, who are ready for any “subordination” formula, even if it is at the expense of the country’s independence and sacrificing relations with Russia.
Karkudinov believes that Tbilisi, despite the intense hostility with Moscow that escalated between them after the South Ossetia war in 2008, wants to maintain a margin of independence in its foreign policy, which was represented by Tbilisi’s refusal to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
He expected that if the draft resolution was converted into a fixed and binding decision, the Western system would not tolerate the matter, and would consider it a coup against all the understandings signed between Tbilisi and the European Union, which would likely lead to ending the old Georgian dream of joining the European Union, or freezing it for a while. Unnamed.
Law and punishment
On the other hand, the writer on Georgian affairs, Mamuk Medinaradze, believes that all “Georgia’s friends and international partners” want to see sanctions against the current authorities in Tbilisi.
He added in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that these measures will come within the system approved by the European Union in cases of human rights violations, considering that “the whole world” is now seeing what the Georgian government is doing with peaceful demonstrators, in addition to what the new draft law will impose on free media and civil society. , as he put it.
Medinaradze expects the European Parliament to suspend any high-level interaction with the Georgian government, including the redistribution of financial support provided to it for the benefit of civil society in the country.
According to him, the upcoming parliamentary elections (next October) will be decisive for Georgia, because the change of power would make it possible to make amendments to the laws that hinder the country’s European integration.
Moreover, Georgia’s Western partners are concerned that Russia could use Georgia to circumvent sanctions, and that the new draft law is a proactive step to silence any voice that could oppose these practices, which would likely end Georgia’s decades-long dream of integration with the European Union.