The CIA Has “Georgia On Its Mind”
Western intelligence agencies are trying to work their “colour revolution” magic in yet another Russian neighbour — and it needs to stop.
What’s happening in Georgia is as bizarre as it is blatant. Western intel agencies, politicians and both governmental and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and media outlets are openly campaigning against a new law in Georgia that would require a modicum of transparency for all such entities operating in the public sphere in Georgia.
It is an absurd situation for several reasons.
Georgian history proves the law is needed
Most people have probably heard of the US-backed “colour revolutions” that have pushed for regime change in various ex-Soviet republics. Taking advantage of the chaos that reigned following the fall of the USSR, Western intel agencies, acting both covertly and overtly through their NGO cutouts, organised “grassroots” revolutions aimed at pulling these ex-Soviet satellites out of Russia’s orbit and into the Western sphere of influence.
They did this specifically by fomenting “movements” to push for joining NATO and the EU.
The US created such a movement in Ukraine and used it to foment the so-called “Orange Revolution” in 2013, which eventually led to the overthrow of the elected government in Kiev and the installation of a US puppet regime.
But Georgia had already had its own experience with such “astro-turfed” revolutions.
Georgia’s “Rose Revolution” of 2003
The first of these colour revolutions was the the so-called “Rose Revolution” — a CIA-backed revolt that ousted the pro-Russian leader, Eduard Shevardnadze, and ushered in Mikheil Saakashvili and his pro-NATO, pro-EU, pro-Western neoliberal polices.
In fact, Saakashvili was completely “westernised”. He had completed his graduate studies in France, Italy, and the Netherlands and at Columbia University in New York City. He even worked for a New York law firm in the 1990's.
Once in power, Saakashvili set about radically altering the Georgian economy in a way that must have made his American handlers proud. He appointed Kakha Bendukidze, a renowned libertarian and flat tax zealot, as the Minister of Economy to implement economic liberalisation and rapid privatization. As Wikipedia notes:
“On the economic front, Saakashvili pursued a neoliberal policy: abolition of the minimum wage, dismissal of 60,000 civil servants, lowering of corporate income tax from 20% to 15%, and dividend tax from 10% to 5%. In 2009, Forbes ranked Georgia as the fourth country with the lowest tax burden in the world”.
Saakashvili immediately became a darling of the Neocons in Washington. Warmongers like John McCain championed him as a stalwart anti-Russian leader.
Saakashvili made no bones about his desire to integrate Georgia into the US sphere of influence. Immediately upon taking office in 2004, he sent Georgian troops to Afghanistan to support the US/NATO mission there. In fact, Georgia became the largest non-NATO contributor of troops to the war in Afghanistan in terms of per-capita deployment.
A President “Made in USA”
In 2004, legendary Guardian reporter Ian Traynor described the array of forces the US marshalled for the Rose Revolution and the “installation” of Saakashvili:
“The Democratic party’s National Democratic Institute [headed by Madeleine Albright], the Republican party’s International Republican Institute [headed by John McCain], the US State Department and USAid [aka CIA] are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Institute.
“US pollsters and professional consultants are hired to organise focus groups and use psephological data to plot strategy”.
Saakashvili was anything but a “home-grown” pro-democracy candidate. He was a creature of the United States, and his successful Presidential campaign was funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations backed by the CIA.
Georgia became a playground for Western interests:
After Shevardnadze’s former minister of justice, Mikheil Saakashvili, deposed him in the 2003 Rose Revolution, professionals from NGOs quickly filled senior government posts. The country’s policy space was thrown wide open to any and all foreign-led aid and reform experiments. The calculation behind this was that the net geopolitical and material benefits would far outweigh any drawbacks.
Why Georgia is a target for Western infiltration
The Rose Revolution was deemed a success for Western hegemony and geopolitical strategy, as it created a system in Georgia based on a highly advanced and lavishly funded network of NGOs and media organisations that could influence popular votes.
In Georgia, the President of the country was elected by popular vote, but could not be a member of a political party. This made the office of the President easily susceptible to Western influence, as the party apparatuses have less influence on that election, and Western intel agencies, NGOs and media outlets could hold more sway over the people’s vote.
Strategic importance and a “second front” against Russia
Although Georgia is a small country of only 3.7 million people, it is strategically significant. Georgia borders not just Russia, but also the Black Sea, the most important body of water for the Russian Navy. Russia’s vaunted Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol in Crimea.
From its Crimean base, the Black Sea Fleet is Russia’s primary naval asset not just for the Black Sea, but also the Sea of Azov and, most importantly, the Mediterranean Sea.
Prying Georgia away from the Russian sphere of influence is thus a high priority for Western powers who seek to contain and intimidate Russia’s Navy, with NATO allies in Turkey, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania, which is poised to host the largest NATO base in Europe.
With the proxy war in Ukraine failing, the US and its Western vassals are in panic mode. This makes getting a “win” in Georgia all the more vital. Indeed, it looks like Ukraine will almost certainly lose its access to the Black Sea. In March 2024, Elon Musk opined:
“Whether Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea or not is, in my view, the real remaining question. I recommend a negotiated settlement before that happens.”
The collective West — and especially Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky — refuse to negotiate with Russian President Putin, so it looks like Ukraine is a lost cause.
That means all eyes wil turn to Georgia, the only other Russian neighbour with access to the Black Sea.
Continuity of Westernised Presidents
The fact that the Georgian President controls the country’s military means — at least for NATO — that having a Western-oriented person in that office is paramount. Mikheil Saakashvili was certainly such a “dependable ally” in this regard.
When Saakashvili was ousted in 2013 amidst scandal and corruption charges and was forced to flee the country (he was later convicted in absentia), he was succeeded by another fully westernised stooge, Giorgi Margvelashvili.
Margvelashvili: a politician literally created by a Western NGO
Margvelashvili was an academic, a philosophy teacher whose entrance into politics came through the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a US-government funded NGO which maintains a large presence in Tbilisi. Like many other CIA-cutout organisations, (such as the National Endowment for Democracy), the NDI was created under the Reagan Administration in 1983, and is meant to help overthrow governments in other countries through an “open” and “legitimate” activities in “promoting democracy”.
The NDI’s sister organisation is the International Republican Institute (IRI), another self-professed NGO also founded in 1983, which likewise “promotes democracy worldwide”. The IRI is also present in Georgia, and whilst Democrats and Republicans generally do not get along, when it comes to overthrowing a government in Georgia, the two organisations are happy to work together.
After his stint at NDI, Margvelashvili went on to serve twice as the rector of the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). This is an ostensibly academic institution that is funded by the US government. It was originally founded by the Orwellian named United States Information Agency, which became part of the US State Department’s intel operations in 1999.
GIPA churns out Western-brainwashed “influencers” such as media professionals. Their school of journalism boasts that it is “funded by the US State Department” and trains (indoctrinates) students from Georgia as well as from Armenia and Azerbaijan (both of which are also ripe for new colour revolutions).
Margvelashvili was thus more than happy to carry on the close cooperation with the United States that Saakashvili had initiated — especially in the area of military cooperation. One of the few real powers that the Presidency has in Georgia is that of overseeing the county’s defense.
Under Saakashvili, Georgia had started training heavily with NATO. US troops poured into the country, creating the Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program, a military buildup that purported to help prepare Georgia to better support NATO in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Georgia even became a major participant in the US bioweapons research program, similar to what was done in Ukraine. The Saakashvili regime started working closely with the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under the Nunn-Lugar Act of 1991.
In July 2016, Margvelashvili’s government signed a new defense memorandum with the US that provided “a new framework for deeper partnership” with the US and NATO, according to Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Tbilisi for the signing, said:
“Obviously we have great respect for your desires as a country to be able to look to the West and engage with the West without punishment, without retribution”.
Yep.
A French President for Georgia?
No wonder, then, that Giorgi Margvelashvili was himself succeeded by an actual Westerner, a former French diplomat who is — of course — also a staunch supporter of NATO.
Salome Zourabichvili, the woman who took over the Presidency, is actually French, albeit of Georgian descent, and did not even become a Georgian citizen until 2004, in the wake of the Rose Revolution. Prior to that, she had been France’s Ambassador to Georgia, until 2004, when according to Wikipedia:
“by mutual agreement between the presidents of France and Georgia, she accepted Georgian nationality and became the Foreign Minister of Georgia.”
It should be noted that the two Presidents referenced above were Jacques Chirac and our old friend Mikheil Saakashvili.
Zourabichvili is still in office, and fighting staunchly to maintain Western US/EU/NATO influence in Georgia.
What the Georgians have learned
The government of Georgia — those that were actually born in Georgia — have watched closely what has happened both in Ukraine and their own country.
Indeed, it is not hard to see that Ukraine and Georgia both fulfil a US foreign policy “fantasy” as chess pieces on a game board, pawns to be used to attack Russia, to try to impose a strategic defeat on Vladimir Putin and — ultimately — overthrow Vladimir Putin and trigger the dissolution of the Russian Federation.
They have watched as the US and NATO caused a violent coup d’état in Kiev in 2014 in order to seize control of that country so they could use it as a “battering ram” against Russia.
They have seen how the West has drained Ukraine of its resources, its wealth and an entire generation of young men in their vain and pointless quest to “weaken Russia” by cynically “fighting to the last Ukrainian”.
Dangerous exploitation by the West
The Georgians have seen the dangers of being allied with the United States. The US’s Nunn-Lugar Act mentioned above has funded facilities to co-opt and develop Soviet biological weapons programs and develop new programs in the ex-Soviet territories — especially Ukraine and Georgia. The US bio facilities in both countries have been deeply criticised as dangerous”dual use” labs by the Russian Federation.
In short, the entire Georgian population is at risk from dangerous experiments and bioweapons programs that the US is running in Georgia — precisely because they are willing to risk Georgian lives.
A shared fate with Ukraine?
The Georgians have certainly learned that, should they become an “ally” of the US and/or NATO, it will not end well for them. Certainly they know the history that they share with Ukraine, how George W. Bush “set them both up” when the NATO members had their summit in Bucharest, Romania in 2008.
Bush, who was at his last NATO summit meeting as President, was said to have wanted to “lay down a marker” for his legacy.
The Germans, French, Italians, Hungarians and the Benelux delegates were against offering NATO membership. But Bush, being the President of the United States, overrode his allies’ objections, and so Section 23 of NATO’s Bucharest Summit Declaration expressed the impending membership for Georgia and Ukraine in no uncertain terms:
“NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO”.
They know that the “open door” invitation to join NATO is just a cruel ruse to provoke Russia into attacking Georgia, like it did in Ukraine.
They know that Georgia will never be able to join NATO.
They know that Georgia will never be able to join the EU.
They know that the offer to become a “friend” of the US and its Western allies will end in the destruction of Georgia, the loss of their sovereignty, and the loss of their national identity.
Henry Kissinger said it best: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
The Georgians know this.
“Georgian Dream” is fighting back
Luckily there is a unified force “on the ground” in Georgia to fight back against the encroaching threat from the West. This force is a political party known as “Georgian Dream”.
Georgian Dream was founded and initially bankrolled by Bidzina Ivanishvili as a platform for his political activities in December 2011. Ivanshvili is a Georgian oligarch who made his money in Russia, and is generally known to be “pro-Russian” in orientation.
Ivanishvili formed Georgian Dream as opposition to the “pro-Western” United National Movement (UNM) of Mikheil Saakashvili, however the party has governed more from the center.
A balanced, “pragmatic” approach towards Russia
In 2020, the Georgia Dream-dominated Parliament adopted a Foreign Policy Resolution that promoted seeking EU and NATO integration while also committing to “a continued ‘pragmatic and principled’ policy” toward Russia. The policy “aimed at ending the occupation, restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and ensuring peace, security and stability in the region”.
Lessons learned from Ukraine
In short, under Ivanishvili’s leadership, Georgian Dream is seeking to do what Ukraine‘s leaders had attempted to do prior to the Maidan Coup in 2014, namely pursue a relationship with the West while maintaining good relations with Russia, it’s giant and powerful neighbour.
Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych tried to take such a “balanced” approach, but he was ultimately forced to flee the country when his government was overthrown and replaced by a 100% pro-Western and virulently anti-Russian regime that was hand-picked by the US State Department.
Georgian Dream leaders like the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, are not going to let that happen to them.
In February 2024, Papuashvili told journalists:
“Opposition parties have created a scheme through fake NGOs to receive illegal donations. There is an illegal donation and THE illegal donation. Here, we are talking about financing from abroad. In fact, a large part of the opposition is directly financed from abroad. Considering that we have an election year, this is equivalent to foreign interference in Georgian elections.”
Western Media and the lesson of the Rose Revolution
But Ukraine wasn’t the only source of lessons to be learned. Georgia also learned from its own history. The Georgian Dream party had witnessed how a powerful network of Western-backed NGOs and media outlets had worked to foment a “revolution” designed to oust the pro-Russian government and replace it with a pro-Western one.
As the US State Department reported in 2004:
“In the twelve years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. Government (USG)-funded assistance programs have been a key element of the U.S. policy to support the political and economic transformation of the former Soviet states. By helping move the Eurasian countries in the direction of democracy and market-based economies, these programs promote long-term stability in the region and contribute to U.S. national security”
This is, after all, no secret. In 2005, the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government published a paper that boasted about how Western media influence led to regime change in Georgia:
“In Georgia, that Western (not least, American) investment in media development assistance and civil society support paid off handsomely in a small but strategically significant nation…there is wide consensus that this development aid helped position Georgia’s media at the forefront of the November 2003 Rose Revolution, which brought a…strongly pro-Western government to power.”
Indeed, the impact of the US-backed media network that the West deployed was acknowledged by its ultimate beneficiary, Mikheil Saakashvili:
“Americans helped us most by channeling support to free Georgian media. . . . That was more powerful than 5,000 Marines.”
Aside from the media influence, Western NGOs in 2003 were also working to undermine Georgian sovereignty and execute regime change. The following is just a partial list of the mostly US-based NGOs that are arrayed against the Georgian government.
Georgia versus the “Global War Party”
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the chair of the Georgian Dream party, who amassed much of his vast personal fortune in Russia, has claimed that a “global war party” is responsible for creating conflicts across the world and dragging countries into wars with Moscow. “It is this global force that first forced the confrontation of Georgia with Russia and then put Ukraine in even worse peril,” Ivanishvili said at a rally last month, accusing “NGOs and the radical opposition” of doing their bidding.
Western NGOs pose a very real threat
Ivanishvili is right to name the NGOs as the opposition. Certainly there is a vast phalanx of US and Western-backed NGOs that are extremely aggressive in their opposition to the Georgian Dream Party. They do not hesitate to criticise and condemn, and are conducting an organised campaign to sow division among Georgian society.
How the NGOs do it
The playbook that the NGOs use to destabilise and help ovberthrow a regime is by now, after so many “colour revolutions” a well-known open secret.
First, it is important to note that the Western NGOs are lavishly well-funded.
A principal adversary: USAID
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the most active CIA “cutouts” working to overthrow governments perceived too close to Russia.
The agency, which is technically part of the US State Dept., began operating in Georgia in 1992. Since then, the agency says it has provided over $1.9 billion in assistance to“counter Russian aggression, foster…democratic development, develop standards to make it a strong economic partner for the United States, and strengthen its partnership with NATO.”
Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG) and leading members of the Georgian Dream party have accused USAID of ‘inspiring riots’ in the country and training groups that planned riots and intended to provoke violence.
“[SSG] also assert that members of a Serbian activist group brought to Georgia at the invitation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had connections to the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, as well as ‘similar processes’ in Serbia, Ukraine, and other states.”
The activist group, known as Canvas, describes itself as “a network of international trainers and consultants with expertise in building and running successful non-violent movements.” But Georgia’s leaders know better:
“Speaking to journalists, Shalva Papuashvili, Georgia’s parliamentary chair, described the events as ‘a black day in the history of American aid to Georgia’, and claimed the US training aimed to bring about ‘the collapse of the state’.”
The National Endowment for Democracy: a “second CIA”
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a generally accepted operating arm of the CIA. Like so many other intel agency cutouts, the NED was formed in the 1980’s to take over CIA’s covert regime change operations.
The agency is one of the most active critics of Georgian Dream, and the Georgian Speaker of the Parliament is rising to the fight, claiming that NED finances politically partisan, party-affiliated non-governmental organizations, citing several specific examples and stating:
“The founders and leaders of all these NGOs are politicians and party leaders. All these party leaders put money in their pockets from abroad.”
The Speaker continued:
“This, of course, does not meet any standards of transparency. It does not meet the American or any standard, even the lowest standard of transparency,” said Shalva Papuashvili to the journalists.does not meet the American or any standard, even the lowest standard of transparency,” Papuashvili told journalists.”
The President and CEO of NED, Damon Wilson, shot back: “Civil society groups have the right to be involved in political processes.”
But Papuashvili isn’t letting up, attacking the NED’s European partner:
“I will mention one thing again — the European Endowment for Democracy, EED, which has covered its own expenses in Georgia, does not reveal itself to Georgian society or EU citizens, and it seems that it directly finances political parties and interferes in elections.”
Papuashvili is maintaining the pressure both on NED and EED:
In another lengthy social media post on May 4, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili again attacks the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) accusing them of lacking transparency and funding what he called a “violent” local NGO, the Shame Movement, and, indirectly, political parties. Papuashvili notes that the EED is run by the MEPs, who “pushed for” the recent resolution criticizing the Georgian government for the Foreign Agents’ law and accuses them of using political levers to advance their interests in Georgia.
The US Democratic and Republican Parties are also involved
As mentioned above, the American political “duopoly” is also involved in fomenting rebellion change in Georgia. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) [once headed by Madeleine Albright], the Republican party’s International Republican Institute (IRI) [once headed by John McCain] are both pouring money into “projects” and “initiatives” designed to stoke revolution. While these two wings of the American “Uniparty” often work together to achieve their common imperial goals in Georgia.
The NDI, for example, seems to specialise in publishing “polls” purporting to show vast majorities of Georgians supporting “Western values” as well as Western institutions like NATO and the EU. Papuashvili has condemned the practice of both the NDI and IRI in publishing polls which he claims “provides nothing beneficial to people but deepens destruction and radicalism.”
The NDI’s Republican counterpart has been especially targeted by Georgian Dream for criticism. In 2023, Speaker Shalva Papuashvili specifically accused the IRI of indirectly funding violence:
“I have repeatedly argued with our partners that their taxpayers’ money is being used to promote the idea of violence in Georgia and to encourage violence. Now it turns out that the IRI is directly funding exactly this kind of event, which is designed to familiarise young people with weapons so that they will not hesitate to get hold of them when the time comes”.
Freedom House
The Orwellian-named Freedom House is one of gthe oldest US government backed international NGOs, having been founded in 1941 “to promote American involvement in World War II and the fight against fascism”. This NGO published “reports” that condemn Georgia as “authoritarian” and “corrupt”. The group is constantly warning about the upcomng elections not being held fairly, and so on.
They are particularly aggressive in their opposition to the Georgian Dream Party.
United Nations Association of Georgia
The United Nations Association of Georgia (UNAG) is one of many Georgian NGOs that were formed in 1995. UNAG specialises in offering paid internships and grants to Georgians through the USAID “Unity Through Diversity” Program. Its primary function is to spread American money around, mostly from USAID, and engage Georgian youth with well-paid positions and grants for projects focused on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) as well as gender equality. Tolerance, and LGBTQ rights.
Transparency International
There is no better way to delegitimise a government than to claim it is “corrupt”. Transparency International (TI) is a global NGO that is funded primarily through Western political entities. In fact. Like the other NGOs operating iin Georgia, TI gets the vast majority (82%) of its funding from “government agencies” such as the US State Department and what they call “mulilateral institutions” such as the European Commission. Other donors include George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (see below).
In Georgia, TI has lately been focussed (like all foreign NGOs) on defeating the Foreign Agents Law.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
Perhaps one of the most aggressive of the Western NGOs arrayed against the Georgian government os the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED). This is an umbrella organisation and serves as a clearinghouse for the influence-peddling projects of various Western governments, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, and the European Union.
George Soros and his Open Society Foundation
It is no secret that the Open Society Foundations has been working overtime in Eastern Europe to fulfil the dream of its founder and funder, George Soros, a billionaire Hungarian Jew who has made it his life’s work to pull all of the ex-Soviet republics away from Russia and into the Western European orbit. In Georgia, the OSF has been working feverishly to accomplish this goal, especially by promoting LGBTQ and Trans rights and activism.
And the list goes on …
The list of Western NGOs and media outlets operating in Georgia today is seemingly endless. Aside from the ones listed above, there are also the Liberty Institute, Open Caucasus Media, Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy (EECMD), Georgia’s Reforms Associates (GRASS), European Civic Forum (ECF), DEVEX, Civil Georgia (UNAG), Freedom House, McCain Institute, George W. Bush Institute, Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG), United Nations Development Programme, the German Marshall Fund, and many more.
What’s all the fuss about?
In 2023, the Georgian parliament, under the control of Georgian Dream Party, passed a law called The Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, more commonly known as the ‘foreign agents bill’.
The full English text of the bill (now a law) can be found here.
Under the law, media outlets, NGOs, trade unions and other groups that receive 20% or more of their funding from foreign sources would be required to label themselves as “organizations pursuing the interests of a foreign power.”
Once designated as such an organisation, the groups would need to comply with extensive reporting requirements and they could face investigations.
The new law was initially proposed in 2023, but was withdrawn following protests against it. Georgian Dream, which controls 84 of the 150 seats in the Georgian parliament, reintroduced the bill in March this year after a new prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, took office, leading to protests since April that were met with violent crackdowns and arrests by masked riot police.
The law has been condemned by the EU and even NATO, as well as the United States.
A “Georgian FARA” ?
The Georgian government has argued that the new law is similar to transparency legislations in Western countries — such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act in the United States and similar directives planned in France and other European Union countries.
Opponents, however, say that, while the laws are similar, the Georgian law specifically targets NGOs and media outlets, whereas the US FARA is more concerned with lobbyists and others who have direct client-agent relationships with a foreign power.
The opponents are being disingenuous.
Condemned as a “Russian Law”
Those opposing the Georgian transparency law often dismiss it as a “Russian law” that is similar to Russia’s Foreign Agent law, which is officially titled “On Amendments to Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation regarding the Regulation of the Activities of Non-profit Organisations Performing the Functions of a Foreign Agent”.
Almut Rochowanski and Sopo Japaridze, writing in Jacobin, argued that the Georgian law is nothing like the Russian one:
Georgia in 2024 is nothing like Russia in 2012, when the latter adopted its foreign agent law — not politically, not in terms of its international alliances, not in terms of democracy and the rule of law, and certainly not in terms of the role played by NGOs. The objectives of Russia’s “foreign agent” law were nothing like those of the Georgian draft bill.
But the focus of the Russian and Georgian laws should be judged in an historical context.
Firstly, we should remember that the US law was passed in 1938, in response to German Nazi propagandising in the United States in the pre-war period. But this was at a time when “nongovernmental organisations” were nonexistent (the term came into being only after WWII) and “media outlets” meant newspapers or radio stations. The cultural and political landscape has changed dramatically since then, especially with the advent of the Internet.
It seems only natural that any sort of foreign agents law today would address the powerful nature of 21st century media and organisational “influencers”.
The EU has its own “Russian law”
The European Union has been harshly critical of the Georgian law. But in December 2023, the European Commission unveiled its own foreign agents law, named the “Defense of Democracy” package, which critics such as the European Civic Forum say is “nearly identical” to what is being proposed in Georgia.
Indeed, the EU law sounds very similar in its scope:
“Think tanks, PR firms, research institutes, media, civil society organisations or individuals providing services to entities outside the EU aimed at influencing the bloc’s policy or ‘public life’ would be affected.”
The law’s defenders in the European Commission, such as EC vice-president Věra Jourová, say that just such a law is needed today to protect the bloc from foreign interference.
Like Georgia’s Parliament Speaker Papuashvili, Jourová wants such a law to safeguard the upcoming 2024 elections for the European Parliament:
“It would be naïve to think that democracy does not need any protection — in today’s world, it is quite the opposite,” Jourová said. “We should not let Putin or any other autocrat covertly interfere (in) our democratic process. We cannot ignore the risk to democracy coming from abroad.”
The EU has not surprisingly come under fire for being hypocritical in its claim that the Georgian foreign agents law is “incompatible with EU values”:
“Besides Georgia, in recent months Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Kyrgyzstan, and Slovakia have adopted or moved forward with foreign agent legislation. The EU has denounced many of these laws as authoritarian and incompatible with its values, but the EU’s proposal is fundamentally no different.”
France is typical of the hypocrisy
On May 23, 2024, France passed its own “foreign agents law”. Six days later, on May 29, France condemned Georgia for passing the same law.
Similar in practice?
There is one thing that all these foreign agents laws have in common: they are all very vague in terms of defining what a “foreign agent” is. What matters most, in each case, is how the law is applied.
In the US, for example, RT America and Sputnik were forced to register under FARA in 2017 due to the anti-Russian hysteria surrounding the alleged foreign interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
The United States, via its Department of Justice (DoJ), had launched only a single criminal prosecution under its version of the Act from 1990 to 2010. However, since the alleged “Russian interference” in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, DoJ prosecutors seized upon FARA, bringing more cases between 2016 and 2019 than in the past 50 years combined.
Such broad, subjective application of a law caused the Journal of National Security Law and Policy to note:
“While the Russian Foreign Agent Law contains significantly more substantive limitations on the functioning of “foreign agents” than FARA does, both laws are nonetheless broad and can sweep in legitimate civil society groups that should not be labeled ‘foreign agents.’”
Does Georgia need such a law? YES.
Georgia is a small country, with a small population and a small and struggling economy. These factors make it very easy for Georgia to fall prey to Western NGOs with deep pockets.
NGOs are richer than the Georgian political parties
As Shalva Papuashvili explained in a lengthy post on social media:
“Some NGOs are rich. They would have been richer than most Georgian political parties, had they registered as such. The richest five NGOs in Georgia have more money than all political parties combined…However, most of this funding comes from foreign sources. The question is why.”
The Georgian Parliamentary Speaker then went on to point out the lack of truly “Georgian” grassroots funding sources for these NGOs:
“In Georgia, people and businesses do donate to political parties, including those in opposition, which means that there is no fear of political retribution...it is really surprising that NGOs never managed to convince either the public or businesses to fund their activities and, thus, have to rely almost exclusively on foreign funding.”
The answer, of course, is obvious. The United States and its allies are pouring money into Georgia, inundating the country’s political system and distorting the economy itself.
Currently, over 25,000 NGOs are registered in Georgia, with about 10,000 who are substantial, active organisations. According to the Georgian authorities, 90% of their funding comes from foreign sources. And as Papuashvili mentions, “the vast majority of Georgian NGOs have received no local funding.
In a press conference on May 1. Georgian PM Irakli Kobakhidze told reporters:
“The opacity of [funding of] NGOs not only creates political problems for Georgia, but also represents a major obstacle to the development of its economy and the increase of its budget.”
Kobakhidze’s views are nothing new, however. His predecessor, Irakli Garibashvili, told reporters in 2023:
“You know that many NGOs have been operating in Georgia over the decades. A lot of NGOs are being created every year. Their work is shrouded in big mystery, uncertainty — this is how I would describe it, bluntly. And their financing and their activities using this financing are untransparent.”
Georgia needs the foreign agents law to protect itself from, Western “meddling” via NGOs whose funding and missions are opaque.
Georgian youth are literally recruited to the West
Sopo Japaridze, who is a Georgian journalist and union organiser, explained the insidious nature of the influence foreign NGOs wield in the Georgian society:
The local NGO landscape is deeply competitive and incentivises sharp elbows and self-promotion rather than collaboration, let alone solidarity. For many industry professionals, working in an NGO is a fast track to the elite class — with high incomes, foreign travel, and receptions at embassies.
Indeed, Western NGOs pay Western-level salaries, which end up generating very high incomes for those who work in the NGO space. And with tens of thousands of NGOs operating in such a small country, the impact can be substantial.
The NGO workforce has, in many ways, formed its own social class of Georgians who are more beholden to the European Union or the United Tates than Georgia in terms of their livelihood and socioeconomic perspectives. With salary levels set in euros or dollars, their pay checks, when exchanged into Georgian Lari (GEL), put them at the very top of the income ladder.
There are no statistics available for how many people in Georgia work for NGOs, but one can expect that there aree hundreds of thousands — mostly concentrated in Tbilisi, which is home to over 430 “civil society organisations “ (CSOs) alone.
NGOs engage in partisan opposition politics
One of the major reasons that the Georgian government wants more transparency from Western NGOs is that these organisations don’t just have more money than the normal political parties in the country — they are taking on the role of the opposition within the political landscape of the country.
As Sopo Japaridze explains:
“on top of the major problem at the heart of Georgia’s political economy lies another, much trickier problem:the small but powerful clique of NGOs with annual budgets of up to millions of dollars from foreign donors — some of them close to the previous government of Saakashvili’s United National Movement — who openly engage in partisan politics.”
Georgian NGOs “hold considerable power over the Georgian population”, according to Japaridze. They derive this power from their access to Western embassies and resources, but also from the “legitimacy” that such institutions convey — rather than from actual “grassroots” support. This leads to a very skewed political process in Georgia:
“Instead of the Georgian people voting for lawmakers to represent their interests, unelected NGOs get their mandate from international bodies, which draw up and pay for checklists of policy reforms in Georgia.”
For the members of the ruling Georgian Dream Party, those checklists contain dangerous objectives that will result in the destruction of Georgia as a sovereign state.
Japaridze continues:
“For about five years, [the foreign-funded NGOs] have denied the government’s legitimacy and called for its ouster — and not just by supporting the opposition in elections, which already crosses ethical red lines for NGOs (especially when they are funded by foreign states).”
Indeed, these Western NGOs “agitate for a revolutionary change of power outside democratic, constitutional processes”.
Georgia’s PM Kobakhidze is repeatedly warning that without the new foreign agents transparency law, Georgia will become just another proxy, like Ukraine: a pawn in the grand chess game between Russia and the West:
For the members of Georgian Dream, the enactment and enforcement of the new transparency law is an existential necessity, one that the very future of Georgia rests upon.
For their opponents in the West, however, the law represents a major roadblock, an obstacle on their way to pulling Georgia into the greater conflict against their greatest adversary, Vladimir Putin.
For the US and its allies, the law cannot be allowed to stand.
The US and EU ratchet up the pressure
The leaders of the Georgian Dream Party and of the Georgian government are coming increasingly under direct pressure from both the United States and the European Union, who insist that they withdraw the “foreign agents law” that the Georgian parliament passed last week.
The US issues a travel ban, proposes sanctions
On May 25, the US announced that it will deny travel visas to the Georgian Dream members who are pushing the new foreign agents law. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement saying that the travel ban will apply to the politicians as well as their families.
In addition to the travel ban, the US Congress is voting to impose sanctions on the members of the Georgian Dream Party. The bill would imposevarious sanctions on Georgian politicians accused of “obstructing Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration” and being behind “corruption, human rights abuses and efforts to advance foreign agents law or facilitate its passage.”
Adding fuel to the fire?
US bill, which has now moved to the Senate, also calls for a permanent suspension of the US-Georgia Strategic Dialogue, under which the two countries have worked together on “Defense and Security” as well as “Democracy and Governance”.
In addition to targeting the governing Georgian Dream party and other officials, the bipartisan bill would allocate at least $50 million “to support democracy and rule of law projects in Georgia,” as well as trigger probes into “foreign malign influence” in the country.
In other words, the bill would “double down” and pour even more money into the Georgian “civil society” — exactly the kind of spending that the Georgian Dream politicians are trying to curb. This cannot be by accident.
The Georgians have responded, blasting the US for “blackmail”. and vowing to move forward with the law.
From the EU: threats of “consequences”
On May 23, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze posted a lengthy Facebook entry claiming that the European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi mentioned the recent attack on Slovakia’s Robert Fico in an attempt to persuade him to drop the contentious “Russian law”.
Kobakhidze said a a long phone conversation between the two turned contentious when the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement drew parallels between the tense situation in Georgia and the recent shooting of Slovak PM Robert Fico.
Várhelyi allegedly said, “look what happened to (Slovak PM Robert) Fico, you have to be very careful,” according to Kobakhidze.
Despite all the pressures being exerted on it, the Georgian government is moving forward and will vote to overturn th President’s veto of the legislation.
Alas, Georgia is facing a combined effort by Western powers to turn it into another proxy; a “second front” in their war with Russia, and they are already laying the groundwork for another “colour revolution”.
A Coup in the making?
The wheels of the next “colour revolution” in Tbilisi may already be turning.
As mentioned above, a large number of Western NGOs are focused on “legitimacy” and “transparency” and vague things like “Democracy and Governance”. These groups are already starting to coordinate their attacks on the Georgian government, claiming that it is corrupt, and making predictions that the upcoming 2024 parliamentary elections could be “tainted” and “illegitimate”.
For example, the National Democratic Institute has published a “Pre-election Report” that identified “polarisation”, as well as “verbal attacks against civil society, including “monitoring organizations” [like themselves], and other issues that could “jeopardise the credibility of the election processes”.
The report says that Georgia’s election processes “do not comply with the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission”, and that “These amendments may further reduce trust in the CEC [central election commission].”
The report comes on the heels of another NDI survey claiming that young people may not participate in elections.
Western media outlets condemn the Georgian leadership daily, many just for using police force against the protesters.
Indeed, the entire Western NGO and media network is united in their opinion that “Georgia is becoming more authoritarian”.
A whole new “Russiagate” on the horizon?
Western NGOs are not just accusing the Georgian leaders of copying a Russian law, they are also warning of “meddling” by the Kremlin in the run-up to Georgian parliamentary elections.
The International Republican Institute (IRI) conducted their own poll, throufgh their Center for Insights in Survey Research (CISR) shows a perceived political threat from Russia, concerns with the presence of Russian citizens in Georgia, and high levels of political polarisation. Moreover, according to IRI, “Georgians are concerned about the presence of Russian citizens in their country.”
In fact, Foreign Policy this month published an article insisting that “Georgians are angry at the government’s pro-Russian turn.”
Moreover, the Western organisations are referring to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party, as a “Russian-Made Oligarch”.
A “surge in violence”
Georgian leaders are sounding the alarm not just about foreign interference in elections, but also about what Sopo Japaridze called “a revolutionary change of power outside democratic, constitutional processes”. In other words, violent revolution similar to what happened at Maidan in 2013–2014.
According to the German website Caucasus Watch:
“Papuashvili accused foreign Embassies and donors of turning a blind eye to what he characterised as ‘NGO-led violence’ during ongoing rallies against the foreign agents law. According to Papuashvili, the roots of this spiral of violence stem from the collaboration between NGOs and the radical opposition. He alleged that these groups have been inciting violence, including by publishing lists of lawmakers who supported the foreign agents bill and exposing their contact information online, leading to threats.”
A perfect storm in October
All of the elements of a colour revolution are coming together.
Firstly, the massive number of international NGOs are already issuing reports, studies, surveys and press conferences aimed at delegitimising the current Georgian government and the Georgian Dream Party itself. All these moves, publications and campaigns are designed to pave the way for an international rejection of the election results in October 2024.
A “treasonous” President?
The first salvo in the upcoming war has already been fired, thanks to the current President of Georgia, French-born Salome Zourabichvili. As mentioned above, Zourabichvili is a creature of the West, and opposes Georgian Dream on the foreign agents ;aw and other matters.
Zourabichvili recently gave a speech in which she openly called for regime change in Georgia:
Zurabishvili said Georgia needed to “create a new political reality” and…said an interim multi-party government and a newly elected parliament must revoke several laws adopted by Georgian Dream “which are detrimental to Georgia’s European course”.
She also called for the “full mobilization” of Georgians living abroad to vote in the elections, saying they were “part of the plan”. Plan?
The President’s remarks were condemned as “treason” by the Georgian PM Irakli Kobakhidze:
“The unity of the people and the government has allowed us over the past two years to maintain peace in the country despite existential threats and various betrayals, including the betrayal of the president,” he said.
It should also be noted that, in calling for Georgian Dream’s defeat in the elections, Zourabichvili is trying to defend her own position. Under a new law, the next President will be chosen by the Parliament, and not by a popular election.
That means that if Georgian Dream holds their majority, Zourabichvili will be ousted in favour of a President who is more on the side of Georgian Dream — and the Georgian people.
An army in waiting
Finally there are the foot soldiers, the young Georgians in Tbilisi who see their own personal futures — and fortunes — tied to the West and its institutions. As mentioned above, many of the NGOs active in Georgia are providing instruction and training in revolutionary means and methods.
These measures will no doubt be deployed in October when it comes time to overthrow the Georgian government.
#End
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I don't understand the desire to trade one overlord for another. The west isn't going to 'save' Georgia from Russia, and every Georgian I know is always waving EU flags, even hippies want to be a part of genocidal NATO. I don't get it. Georgia will never be a member of either. And then they say their values align with Europe. The same Europe that is currently funding and approving of genocide?
Excellent article!
The absurdity of it!
The 'Foreign Agents' law in Georgia is being opposed by the 'Foreign Agents' in Georgia!
(Who would have guessed?)