The Georgian “foreign agent” law  is a “geopolitical tool that Russia uses to demarcate its territory”, Anna Dolidze, founder of the Georgian political party For the People, told bne IntelliNews in an interview in Tbilisi. 

On May 14, despite huge nation-wide protests and international criticism,  the ruling Georgian Dream party approved the bill – dubbed the “Russian law” – under which NGOs and independent media operating in Georgia that receive at least 20% of their funding from abroad must declare themselves  “foreign agents” that are “bearing the interests of a foreign power”.

As a former human rights lawyer Dolidze is deeply concerned that Georgian civil society will pay a heavy price for the bill.

“I’m worried a lot of social organisations will suffer – hospices, homes for the elderly, palliative care organisations, organisations for terminally ill children – all or most of these are dependent on grants and foreign assistance”, Dolidze says. 

She fears many such centres will be forced to close down because of the threat of fines for not abiding by the law. “They’re not going to register as foreign agents. It’s a matter of principle. Most NGOs will resist the label. They will resist being called foreign agents”, she says.

There is widespread concern among the Georgian political opposition and international observers, including the EU, that, far from protecting Georgia’s sovereignty and ensuring transparency of foreign funding as proponents of the bill claim, the new law will enable the government to stifle civil liberties, target critics, and hold the country within the Kremlin’s sphere of influence, in turn jeopardising Georgia’s chances of future EU membership.

This bill has been compared to the Russian “foreign agent” law passed in 2012,  which has inspired a wave of similar legislation across the world, notably in other post-Soviet states, for example, Kyrgyzstan, but also in the EU, where Hungary and Slovakia have proposed laws “protecting” their sovereignty from foreign interference.

Dolidze certainly believes that Russia had a big part to play in the May 14 bill. Georgian Dream has been accused by critics of moving away from the West and back into Moscow’s orbit, which Georgia escaped in the Rose Revolution of 2003.

“This is not only an initiative by the Georgian government. This is Russia’s global political instrument which it uses in its neighbourhood and among its allies to try and push away what Russia thinks are organisations that are advocating for Western values”, she says.

For Dolidze, the recent bill is one in a “whole package” of anti-Western, “KGB textbook” laws, as she puts it, which have been recently passed by the Georgian parliament, signalling the clear influence of Russian propaganda and a disregard for human rights. These include the abolishment of gender quotas for female MPs passed in April, and the Protection of Family Values and Minors (Anti-LGBTQ) law, which passed its first reading on Thursday with zero votes against. 

“This [“foreign agent” bill] which has been adopted is part of the Russian toolkit, and we [the opposition] reject it wholeheartedly, and then we leave them alone with their ridiculous discussions,” Dolidze says, warning against entering into any debate with the ruling party, or even combing the legislation for particularly problematic provisions. “You will become a cog in the government propaganda…you will be seen to be agreeing with the overarching spirit of the law”, Dolidze insists.

The new “foreign agent” bill will restrict Georgia’s association with the West, at least for now. The Caucasus country was granted EU candidacy status in December last year, but, as conveyed by “clear-cut language from Brussels”, as Dolidze puts it, the European Commission will “pause” Georgia’s application process in light of the recent legislation. 

This idea of a delay rather than full stop has been deliberately echoed by Georgian Dream, Dolidze explains, so as not to scare off their own more Western leaning voters before this October’s general election. 

Dolidze regrets that Georgia is absent from EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, which began last week. 

“By all indicators we deserve to be there”, she says. “Our application is paused and pending a change of course: pro-European reforms to get us back on track. That implies a change of government because the ruling party is not going to get us back on track.”

Far from it, in fact. According to Dolidze, the bill will help Georgian Dream retain their shaky grip on power in the elections. Under the bill, non-registered NGOs will face fines and will be barred from observing the voting process. “They [Georgian Dream] know they will lose. They don’t want any organisations that are not dependent on Georgia to have a say [in the elections],” Dolidze says. 

Mobilising the opposition

The weeks preceding the bill’s passing saw some of the biggest protests in Georgia’s history, peaking on May 14 when around 300,000 were out on the streets in Tbilisi. With so many mobilised, the opposition could have potentially attempted to force through a power change, as in the Rose Revolution in which  United National Movement leader Mikheil Saakashvili seized control from President Eduard Shevardnadze, marking an end to Soviet-era leadership in the country. 

Dolidze, however, suggests that protesters may have refrained from more forceful action to avoid giving the authorities – who were already using “disproportionate” violence against protesters – a pretext to escalate further. “The government was waiting for any provocation to use more violence, or maybe even abrogate elections or establish emergency law”, says Dolidze. 

Instead, the politician believes those who oppose the ruling party are waiting to use their votes in the autumn to push Georgian Dream out, in doing so continuing the “established cycle of democratic change through elections”, as Dolidze puts it. 

Whilst public support for Georgian Dream is around 30% (down from 45% at the last elections), opposition parties have no more than 10% each, meaning that the opposition will need to unite to have a chance at taking power in the autumn. The pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, whose veto of the “foreign agent” bill was overturned by parliament on 28 May, has promised to act as the figurehead of a movement to unite the opposition and get Georgia back on a European course. 

Dolidze herself, determined to end the polarisation of Georgian politics of the last two decades, created a “clean hands” alternative three years ago – the ‘For the People’ party, founded on ideas of social justice.

She worries that a coalition united around the country’s biggest opposition party, United National Movement, may deter those who remember the “problematic history” of UNM and the repressive legal system under Saakashvili. 

“They [UNM] achieved a breakthrough, but one which had a very serious dark side in terms of human rights abuses; violence, torture, arrests and so on”, says Dolidze. “We can’t unite with UNM”, the politician continues, when asked about the prospects of her own party entering into a coalition with Georgia’s main opposition party. 

Whilst she acknowledges that, eventually, a coalition government will need to be formed, Dolidze suggests that UNM runs independently in the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, other opposition parties will combine  on a platform that will take enough votes from Georgian Dream to push them out of office. 

“The key is change. Georgian Dream has to go. Even without this Russian law this would be their fourth term. That’s unacceptable”, says  Dolidze. 

She points to last year’s high emigration figures as testimony to the damage the ruling party has done to the country, highlighting the lack of prospects and social security for young people. 

However, Dolidze believes Georgia’s capital is “highly enthusiastic” about the upcoming elections and says she expects to see an “unbelievable presence” at polling stations, particularly among young people. 

During her visits to Georgia’s rural regions, on the other hand, she has noticed how continued disappointment has solidified into “active nihilism” and a poisonous political apathy among 1 in 4 voters, according to Dolidze’s calculations. Engagement of these people is the challenge her party faces, and what her information campaign in these elections will be geared towards.