Georgian authorities believe that the US Senate is “insufficiently informed of ongoing processes and trends” in Georgia. This is how the ruling Georgian Dream party explained Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen’s criticism of Georgia’s entrenched authoritarianism. Meanwhile, Georgian Dream called Senator Shahin’s assessment “unacceptable.”
“Georgia today is more democratic than ever, I can say that with fairness. There is a much greater degree of freedom than ever in Georgia. Therefore, such an assessment is categorically unacceptable,” said Mikhail Sarjveladze, one of the leaders of the parliamentary majority, in his comments to the media.
Critics in the US Senate
Senator Shaheen mentioned Georgia during a meeting of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during a discussion related to the rise of authoritarianism around the world.
“One of the countries where there is an internal struggle between autocracy and democracy is Georgia, where it is clear that the Georgian people want to go to the West, to Europe, they want democracy. Senator Rish and I were there in 2012 to observe the election when Georgian Dream came to power in the country. But now we see that the Georgian government is moving more and more towards autocracy,” Shahin said.
At the same time, the senator underscored the importance of sending a long-term observer mission to Georgia in connection with the legislative elections to be held in 2024. USAID Director Samantha Power, who also took part in the discussion in the Senate, agreed with her. Power said there are no plans to monitor Georgia’s elections at this time, although she personally considers such missions to be important, especially given the recent attacks on civil society in Georgia.
“I think we should send election observers widely, both short-term and long-term missions, because this is a real opportunity for the voice of citizens to be heard,” USAID director said. .
Reaction in Tbilisi
These statements, made on April 26 in the Senate, aroused the discontent of anti-Western forces in Georgia. MPs from the anti-Western “Power of the People” movement announced on April 29 that the United States would interfere in the Georgian elections and declare their results illegitimate if the Georgian opposition does not win enough votes and the majority of voters vote for the “Georgian Dream” and its associates.
Interestingly, the Georgian Dream has not denied the speculation expressed by MPs from the anti-Western movement, who were originally members of the Georgian Dream, but later split from the leading force on the pretext that they want to ” tell the truth “. This “truth” turned out to be mostly anti-American and anti-Western messages. It should be noted that the pro-Western opposition believes that the “dissident” MPs are not independent and really express the position of the founder of the Georgian Dream, the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom the opponents accuse of unofficially governing the country “for behind the scenes”. and have a decisive influence on all important decisions of the Georgian government.
“The only contentious issue between us and our friends at People’s Force is the mix of information, i.e. the extent of what can be said publicly and what can harm, respectively,” he said on April 29 in his commentary on the declaration of the people of the Force “Mamuka Mdinaradze, one of the leaders of the “Georgian Dream”.
At the same time, Mdinaradze recalled that in the previous elections of 2020, an NGO of a number of non-governmental organizations which had carried out a parallel count of the ballots had made a mistake and, as he pointed out said, an attempt had been made to “delegitimize” the elections. Accordingly, as Mdinaradze said, Georgian Dream does not rule out that some forces will try to do something similar in 2024, because otherwise, according to Mdinaradze, “the radical opposition” will not be able to obtain a sufficient number of votes. .
Mdinaradze, however, did not elaborate on how he links the US role to a mistake made by one of Georgia’s nongovernmental organizations.
It should be noted that the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) announced in 2020 a “technical error”, after correcting that the Georgian Dream indicator in the 2020 parliamentary elections fell from 45.8% to 47.6% compared to the original data. After that, the director of ISFED resigned, but Georgian Dream continues to claim that this NGO was in cahoots with the opposition and that the results of the parallel count were deliberately “falsified”.
Propaganda and Georgian society
Pro-Western opponents in Georgia believe that anti-Western forces are generally aware that the anti-Western campaign they are waging, including with the help of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has failed. In particular, as opponents of the government, initiated by People Power, with the support of the ruling party, recall, the Foreign Agents Bill was withdrawn in March following large-scale street protests by the Georgian people, who categorically opposed the authorities’ plan to regulate the media and NGOs. Moreover, according to the opposition, despite anti-Western propaganda, according to the results of the latest poll conducted in Georgia by the International Republican Institute (IRI), Georgia’s membership of the EU is supported by 89 % of IRIs surveyed, and at NATO 80%. At the same time, according to this study, over the past six months, the rating of the “Georgian Dream” has fallen from 25% to 19%, and support for “People’s Power” among Georgian citizens has turned into less than 1%. As a result, as Teona Akubardia, an opposition MP, says, sociological research and public outcry demonstrate that the Georgian population is now more consolidated than ever on the issue of the country’s foreign policy.
“All this causes distrust and fear among anti-Western political forces that act against the national interests of the country, trying in vain to increase Russian influence in Georgia,” Akubardia said.
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