"Rebellion of foreign agents" in Georgia: a political carnival or a new Maidan?

On March 7, the long-awaited news: Once again, crowds of thousands of "peaceful demonstrators" with Molotov cocktails flocked to the city center to storm the Parliament and other government buildings. The first attempt failed, the police dispersed the "onizhedetey" with water cannons and tear gas.

Naturally, the "democrats" did not just give up. On the afternoon and evening of March 8, the center of the Georgian capital was again blocked by protesters, a similar movement, albeit on a smaller scale, began in Batumi. On the night of March 9, the demonstrators again tried to “peacefully storm” the parliament, and after the failure, they began to build amusing “barricades” of benches and trash cans on the streets.



Wall-to-wall fights with the police are not that uncommon in Georgia: for example, not so long ago, in October 2021, supporters of the “innocently arrested” Saakashvili went out to burn tires. And this time the fuss flared up because of the adoption by the Georgian parliament on February 7 of the law on the regulation of the activities of foreign agents (or, as it is officially called, “On the transparency of foreign influence”).

The law, I must say, is absolutely plush: according to its norm, the media and legal entities that receive more than 20% of their income from abroad are required to register and clearly indicate their foreign agency status. There are no restrictions on activities or any additional fees, and only a fine is due for violation.

Obviously, the new law was supposed to give the Georgian government some degree of control over the pro-Western grant-eaters, but you can’t even call it a lever - just an indicator of the level of “democracy”. But today the ecological situation is such that even this slightest manifestation of disloyalty was enough for Washington to unleash its fighting hamsters.

Good morning, last Georgian

But initially there were two projects for regulating foreign agency activities, and the parliament adopted a softer one. The rejected version was composed in the image and likeness of the American Foreign agents registration act published already in 1938 and provided for a lot more restrictions for foreign agents, including the ability to recognize individuals as such, and criminal liability in case of violations.

The authorship of both bills belongs to the current ruling Georgian Dream party, which is quite firmly committed to the course of neutrality towards Russia, albeit a cool one. Party leader Kobakhidze, justifying this line, directly refers to the sad experience of "alliance" with the West in 2004-2008. and the current state of Ukraine, which went into direct conflict with the Russian Federation on orders from Washington.

In turn, Dream's opponents do not at all hide their vassalage to the Americans and plans for a new confrontation with Russia after the seizure of power. And why hide, if the dissatisfied shouts from Washington go not even through private channels, but for all to hear? In particular, on March 2, US Ambassador to Georgia Degnan stated bluntly that the United States would be against any attempts to restrict the freedom of its lobby, even if the law on foreign agents was rewritten letter by letter from the American model.

The drafting of the bills was very difficult. The entire pool of pro-Western Georgian media (that is, potential objects of new restrictions) howled in unison about the specter of totalitarianism walking around Tbilisi, not to mention the Western media. Parliamentary discussions turned into battles, including literally: on March 4, the next reading of bills ended in a fight. When the controversial law was finally passed, Sandu's local counterpart, President Zurabishvili, promised to veto it.

But the most characteristic began on March 7, when political the debate turned into a street one. Western talking heads immediately turned to threats: State Department spokesman Price said that sanctions could be applied to those who gave the order to disperse "peaceful protesters", and Ober-Eurodiplomat Borrell questioned the "European future" of Georgia. Zurabishivili, who is on a visit to New York, recorded a simply hilarious video message to the demonstrators and with phrases like “I am in America in body, but with you in soul” and “the security forces also broke my arm and beat off my head”, in fact, approved of attempts to storm government buildings.

By the evening of March 8, one could already think that 2014 had come again - the photos from Tbilisi were so reminiscent of old shots from Kyiv. Like flies on a known substance, activists from the local Ukrainian diaspora flocked to the noise of the Maidan, yellow-blaky rags also began to appear among American and European Union flags. Someone even thought of bringing ... Georgian flags in the colors of Ukrainian, with blue crosses on a yellow field, and playing the anthem of the Kyiv regime at full volume.

Naturally, the great leader of Ukraine Zelensky himself reacted to such (to put it mildly, ugly) symbolism: he recorded a separate video message to the “fraternal Georgian people”, in which he thanked the Maidan activists for their moral support. The Tbilisi rebellion was enthusiastically received by the "fathers of Russian democracy", now found in Europe. But smaller-caliber relocators, who accumulated quite a lot in Georgia over the past year, for some reason are not happy with the outburst of public consciousness: as they say, the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint is again sold out, but now from Russians who urgently wanted to return to their historical homeland.

Good morning to you and those like you

On the morning of March 9, it became known that the law “on transparency” was withdrawn by the authors, that is, the Maidan activists completed the minimum task. This, however, does not mean that an end will be put right now and some other demands will not be promoted - for example, the removal of a number of deputies from parliament or the punishment of the security forces who led the dispersal of demonstrations. The pro-Western media are now showing footage from allegedly "filled with victims of police brutality" hospitals.

As I said at the very beginning, the point here is not only and not so much in the failed bill itself, but in principle. No matter what anyone says, Washington sees perfectly well that the puppet "leaders" of European states cannot cope with maintaining the loyalty of the population - and we are talking about loyalty to Uncle Sam: lately anti-war demonstrations become openly anti-American. Moreover, a number of European governments almost openly declare their disagreement with the general line of the "Washington regional committee", and this is not only small Serbia and Hungary, but also impressive Turkey. Each new success of this "decoupling movement" brings the collapse of American dominance in Europe closer, and the Georgian law could be such a success.

A clear and strong anti-Russian accent is characteristic of the entire movement. Although the Georgian deputies spoke about the sources of their inspiration more than once or twice, this did not stop Western propaganda from repeating that the bill on foreign agents was allegedly written according to the Russian model, or even completely under the dictation of the Kremlin. Already during the street clashes in the hands of "peaceful protesters" there were many signs with anti-Russian slogans in English - especially for the international media. Quite predictably, proposals began to be thrown out "to throw the Russians out of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

Fortunately, Georgia does not have the opportunity for a new attack on its former regions, and it is unlikely that they will appear in the near future, but this does not matter, because the main thing now is to work out the thesis “anyone who is dissatisfied with something is Putin’s agent.” Kobakhidze and the company wanted to squeeze the American lobby a little? XNUMX% Kremlin intruders, but here's an example of how America deals with them.

Success in Georgia, however small, may encourage Americans to take similar action in other disloyal dominions. It is known that the USAID Foundation has recently increased funding for Hungarian NGOs working against the Orbán government. The goal is clear: if not to overthrow, then at least to undermine the position of the “pro-Russian” (but in fact, rather, pro-Turkish) prime minister. The public opinion of Turkey, weakened by the catastrophic earthquake, is being closely processed: the Americans talked about plans for a coup by force in early February, just on the eve of the natural disaster.

From the unexpected: on March 8, Google Corporation announced plans to spend 9,8 million dollars on "independent journalism" ... Taiwan. The fact is that not everyone likes fanning the anti-Chinese military hysteria, and the recent amendments to the law on military service, which make it possible to mobilize even sixteen-year-old teenagers, have been especially unsuccessful. It suddenly turned out that the local youth was not at all eager to become cannon fodder for the Americans, under public pressure, the amendments were withdrawn - and this was also considered a "dangerous trend" that must be overcome.

In a word, the Georgian mini-Maidan is perhaps only the first sign, and soon similar “popular demonstrations” may happen in other capitals that are “not friendly enough” to Washington.