US warns Georgia not to side with Moscow against
the west
Official suggests US funding could be pulled as new
‘Kremlin-inspired’ law provokes mass protests
Daniel
Boffey in Tbilisi
Tue 14 May
2024 21.14 CEST
Georgia has
been warned by the US not to become an adversary of the west by falling back in
line with Moscow, as its parliament defied mass street protests to pass a
“Kremlin-inspired” law.
Washington’s
assistant secretary of state, Jim O’Brien, spoke of his fears that the passing
by Georgia’s parliament of a “foreign agents” bill on Tuesday could be yet
another “turning point” in the former Soviet state’s troubled history.
In comments
that appeared to signal a conviction in the US that the Georgian government was
once again aligning with Russia, O’Brien suggested funding could soon be
pulled.
Billions of
dollars had been spent by the US on rebuilding Georgia after the fall of the
Soviet Union and hundreds of millions more were planned for the country’s
economy and military, he said.
“All that
has to be under review if we are now regarded as an adversary and not a
partner,” O’Brien told reporters at a press conference in Tbilisi.
The US
official was speaking as a controversial “foreign agents” bill was backed by 84
MPs to 30 in defiance of demonstrations that have brought hundreds of thousands
on to the streets of Tbilisi.
Outside the
parliament building, masked riot police used teargas in a vain attempt to
disperse one of the largest protests seen so far while inside MPs brawled over
the country’s future.
Peaceful
protests carried on after nightfall, with throngs of demonstrators marching to
Heroes Square, about 2km from parliament, and blocked off the surrounding
streets.
Under the
legislation, media or civil society groups in Georgia that receive more than
20% of their funding from abroad will have to register as “organisations
serving the interests of a foreign power”.
The US
state department has called the bill “Kremlin-inspired”, as it has echoes of
legislation introduced into the Russian statute books in 2012 by Vladimir
Putin, which many people say has been used to silence critics.
O’Brien
said the strategic relationship with Georgia had been put at risk by the new
law and a ramping up of anti-western rhetoric in recent days.
Georgia’s
prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, claimed on Monday that the country was being
victimised by a US-led “global party of war”, in language that had echoes that
of that used by the Kremlin over the west’s aid to Ukraine.
O’Brien
described the comments as “unreal and a complete misunderstanding of the
international community’s relationship with Georgia”. He said: “If the law goes
forward without conforming to EU norms and [with] this kind of rhetoric and
aspersion against the US and others, I think the relationship is at risk.”
He also
criticised the billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, honorary chair of the
ruling Georgian Dream party, who is widely thought to drive government policy.
O’Brien had
asked for a meeting with Ivanishvili but it had been rejected on the grounds
that the US had frozen $2bn (£1.6bn) of his money through “de facto” sanctions,
Kobakhidze had told reporters on Monday. O’Brien said there were no sanctions
on Ivanishvili “at this point” and that “for such an individual to be so badly
misinformed is shocking and disappointing”.
He went on
to claim that the comments suggested that the prime minister had put the
“individual interests” of one billionaire over Georgia’s constitutional
commitment to a close working relationship with Nato, the western military
alliance.
He also
called for the Georgian police to respect the peaceful protests that have
filled the streets of Tbilisi and called for those found to have used excessive
force to be arrested and prosecuted.
A series of
leaders of the opposition have been badly beaten on the streets by unidentified
gangs while footage has been captured of protesters being punched and kicked by
police.
Protesters
argue that the ‘foreign agents’ bill will scupper Georgia’s chances of EU
membership. Photograph: Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP
O’Brien
warned that the US was prepared to sanction Georgian government ministers and
officials over the developing crisis.
He said:
“If the law advances against EU norms and there is an erosion of democracy and
violence against peaceful demonstrators, we will see restrictions from the
United States. There will be financial and/or travel restrictions specifically
on those responsible and their families.”
After a
fresh outbreak of police violence on Tuesday, a number of protesters were
treated by medics after teargas was used on a noisy but seemingly peaceful
crowd while squads of police dragged individuals away.
The
violence spread into the chamber, with a dozen MPs fighting and one MP, from
the governing Georgian Dream party, being held back by security guards as he
violently lurched at the chair of the main opposition, Levan Khabeishvili.
The police
were initially successful in clearing the crowds from Rustaveli Avenue in front
of the imposing parliament building but the officers soon retreated to whistles
and jeers as the demonstration grew in the early evening.
A rendition
of the national anthem, Tavisupleba, or Freedom, was sung by the many tens of
thousands braving the rain followed by the playing on a tannoy of Beethoven’s
Ode to Joy, also known as the anthem of Europe.
Lithuania’s
president, Gitanas Nausėda, issued a statement of solidarity as images of the
unrest spread around the world.
“Dear
Georgian people, we hear you and stand with you in your struggle for the
European future of Georgia. Nobody has the right to take your European dream
away. Nobody has the right to silence the will of the people to live by
values,” Nausėda’s statement said.
Georgian
Dream is accused of unwinding the progress made since the 2003 rose revolution,
when a non-violent movement brought an end to an administration that was Soviet
in style and corrupt in practice.
The party
was elected 12 years ago after those who drove the changes in Georgian politics
in the early 2000s were blamed for antagonising Russia, leading to an invasion
and full-scale war in 2008.
The
European Commission on Tuesday restated its position that the new law would
undermine Georgia’s application to join the European Union. “EU member
countries are very clear that if this law is adopted it will be a serious
obstacle for Georgia in its European perspective,” it said.
On Monday,
students from 30 Georgian universities joined the protests and went on strike,
backed by lecturers.
Irakli
Beradze, 22, a student in Tbilisi, holding up a sign saying “Russia can’t
gaslight us, we have gas masks”, said that he and thousands of others “would
not let Russia have our country”.
Tina
Bokuchava, parliamentary leader of the opposition United National Movement,
said: “Today’s vote will focus minds on the urgent need for regime change in
Georgia. With elections to look forward to in October, I am confident that the
unity seen on our streets in recent weeks will prove a watershed moment in our
nation’s history.
“Our
rightful place is in Europe – but the Ivanishvili stranglehold must be broken
first if this dream is to be realised.”
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