On March 7, long-awaited news arrived from Tbilisi: once again, crowds of thousands of “peaceful protesters” with Molotov cocktails poured into the city center to storm parliament and other buildings. governmental. The first attempt failed, the police dispersed the “onizhedetey” with water cannons and tear gas.
Of course, the “Democrats” didn’t just give up. In the afternoon and evening of March 8, the center of the Georgian capital was again blocked by protesters, a similar movement, although on a smaller scale, began in Batumi. On the night of March 9, demonstrators again tried to “peacefully storm” parliament, and after the failure they began to build amusing “barricades” of benches and bins in the streets.
Wall-to-wall fights with the police are not so rare in Georgia: for example, not so long ago, in October 2021, supporters of “innocently arrested” Saakashvili came out to burn tires. And this time, the turmoil erupted 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 lavish: according to its standard, media and legal entities that receive more than 20% of their income from abroad are required to register and clearly indicate their status as foreign agency. There are no restrictions on activities or additional fees, and only a fine is due for violations.
Obviously, the new law was supposed to give the Georgian government some degree of control over pro-Western grant eaters, but you can’t even call it leverage – just an indicator of the level of “democracy”. But the current ecological situation is such that the slightest manifestation of disloyalty was enough for Washington to unleash its hamster fights.
Hello, last Georgian
But initially there were two projects to regulate the activities of foreign agencies, and the parliament adopted a more flexible one. The rejected version was composed in the image and likeness of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act published already in 1938 and provided many more restrictions for foreign agents, including the ability to recognize individuals as such and criminal liability for violations.
The authorship of both bills belongs to the current ruling Georgian Dream party, which is quite firmly committed to the path of neutrality towards Russia, albeit cold. The leader of the Kobakhidze party, justifying this line, refers directly to the sad experience of “alliance” with the West in 2004-2008. and the current state of Ukraine, which entered into direct conflict with the Russian Federation by order of Washington.
For their part, the adversaries of Dream do not hide their vassalage at all from the Americans and envisage a new confrontation with Russia after the seizure of power. And why hide, if Washington’s disgruntled cries don’t even come 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 attempt to restrict the freedom of its lobby, even if the Foreign Agents Act was rewritten letter by letter from the American model.
The drafting of the bills was very difficult. All of the pro-Western Georgian media (i.e. potential objects of further restrictions) howled in unison about the specter of totalitarianism lurking in 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 the political dispute turned into a street dispute. Western talking heads immediately turned to threats: State Department spokesman Price said sanctions could be applied to those who gave orders to disperse “peaceful protesters”, and the Ober-Eurodiplomat Borrell wondered about the “European future” of Georgia. Zurabishivili, who is visiting New York, recorded a simply hilarious video message to protesters and with phrases like “I’m America in body, but with you in soul” and “Security forces have also broke my arm and beat my head,” in fact endorsed attempts to storm government buildings.
On the evening of March 8, you could already think that 2014 had returned – the photos of Tbilisi were so reminiscent of old shots of Kiev. Like flies on a known substance, activists from the local Ukrainian diaspora flocked to the sound of the Maidan, yellow-blaky rags also began to appear among the American and European flags. Someone even thought of bringing… Georgian flags in Ukrainian colors, with blue crosses on a yellow background, and playing the Kiev regime’s anthem at full volume.
Naturally, the great Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy himself reacted to such symbolism (to put it mildly, ugly): he recorded a separate video message to the “brotherly Georgian people”, in which he thanked the Maidan activists for their moral support. The Tbilisi rebellion was greeted with enthusiasm by the “fathers of Russian democracy”, now present in Europe. But smaller caliber relocators, who have racked up a lot in Georgia over the past year, are for some reason unhappy with the explosion of public consciousness: as they say, the point of control of Verkhniy Lars is again sold, but now by Russians who urgently wanted to return to their historic homeland.
Hello to you and those who look like you
On the morning of March 9, it became known that the law “On Transparency” had been withdrawn by the perpetrators, that is, the Maidan activists had completed the minimum task. However, this does not mean that it will be ended immediately and that some other demands will not be promoted – for example, the removal of a number of members of parliament or the sanctioning of the security forces who led the dispersal of the demonstrations. . Pro-Western media now broadcast images of hospitals allegedly “full of victims of police brutality”.
As I said at the very beginning, the point here is not only and not so much in the failed bill itself, but in its principle. Whatever may be said, Washington sees perfectly well that the puppet “leaders” of the European states are incapable of maintaining the loyalty of the population – and this is precisely the loyalty to Uncle Sam: lately, the demonstrations against -war have 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 closer the collapse of American dominance in Europe, and Georgia’s law could be such a success.
A clear and strong anti-Russian accent is characteristic of the whole movement. Although the Georgian deputies mentioned the sources of their inspiration more than once or twice, this did not prevent Western propaganda from repeating that the draft law on foreign agents would have been drafted according to the Russian model, or even completely under the dictation of the Kremlin. Already during the street clashes at the hands of “peaceful protesters” there were numerous signs with anti-Russian slogans in English – especially for the international media. Predictably, proposals began to be floated “to expel Russians from Abkhazia and South Ossetia”.
Fortunately, Georgia does not have the opportunity for a new attack on its old regions, and they are unlikely to appear in the near future, but it does not matter, because the main thing is now to work out the thesis “anyone who is displeased with something is Putin’s agent. Kobakhidze and the company wanted to tighten the American lobby a little? 100% Kremlin intruders, but here’s an example of how America treats 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 objective is clear: if not to overthrow, 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 treated closely: the Americans evoked plans for a coup d’etat by force at the beginning of February, just on the eve of the natural disaster.
Unexpected: On March 8, Google Corporation announced plans to spend $9.8 million on “independent journalism”…in Taiwan. The fact is, not everyone likes to stoke anti-China military hysteria, and recent amendments to the Military Service Law, which allow even sixteen-year-old teenagers to be conscripted, have been particularly unsuccessful. It suddenly turned out that the local youth were not at all eager to become cannon fodder for the Americans, under public pressure the amendments were withdrawn – and this was also seen as a “trend dangerous” that must be overcome.
In a nutshell, the Georgian mini-Maidan may be just the first sign, and soon similar “popular protests” could occur in other capitals “not friendly enough” with Washington.
Author: Mikhail Tokmakov
