LONDON: It was all so promising thirty years ago. The Soviet Union had collapsed and Georgia, formerly known as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, at last became free. Last Tuesday, Georgia’s parliament passed what many people are calling the “Russia Law”, fearing history is about to turn full circle and once again the country will be in the grip of the Russian Bear.
This tiny country of just 3.7 million people, straddling East Europe and West Asia, has been inhabited since prehistoric times, hosting the world’s earliest known sites of winemaking, gold mining and textiles. It is also the birthplace of one of the world’s most notorious dictators, Joseph Jughashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin—“man of steel”, who ruled the Soviet Union for thirty years. Many believe that Stalin is Putin’s role model and that Putinism is simply an updated version of Stalinism.
Georgia was one of the fifteen countries which emerged from the collapsed Soviet Union in 1991. As Britain had no embassy in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, diplomatic services were provided from the embassy in Moscow where I worked at the time. The two-hour Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Tbilisi was always a challenge. There were rarely any seat-belts available and some passengers stood for the duration of the flight as all seats were filled. Even the on-board toilets were usually unavailable as passengers, desperate to make the journey, had purchased them directly from the pilots so they had somewhere to sit. Nevertheless the prospect of visiting Georgia always generated a frisson of excitement. It was not just the gorgeous countryside or the breathtakingly beautiful coastline, it was also the generosity and friendliness of its people. Every person we met was pleased to see us and excited about the prospect of joining the free world after seventy years of subservience to Moscow.
On one occasion, my wife and I were in a small souvenir shop in Tbilisi on the morning of our return home to Moscow, when a charming middle-aged lady engaged us in conversation, having heard us talking to each other in English. After a few minutes, she begged us to have some refreshments in her flat a few steps away, which we gratefully accepted. Georgian architecture is rather special and here was an opportunity to experience it. After an hour or so of fascinating conversation about her life under communism and our life in the West, we realised that we had to rush to the airport to catch our flight and thanked her for her kind hospitality. She then said something extraordinary. “I want you to take any object or painting from this flat as a memory of this wonderful moment”, she said. Despite our protests, she persisted and we realised she might be offended if we declined. So we decided to choose the smallest and least valuable object we could find, which we still treasure.
Although this experience was unique, we found every Georgian we encountered to be not only kind and generous, but also so excited about the prospect of joining the West. This probably explains why Georgia is one of the most pro-western countries of the former Soviet Union with the vast majority of citizens wanting to join the EU and NATO. It also explains why tens of thousands of protestors packed the streets early last week, incensed that by passing the new law their government seemed determined to scupper the country’s prospects of turning to the West. They are accusing the governing party, Georgian Dream, of trying to drag Georgia back into Russia’s sphere of influence; and they have a point.
On the surface, the new law appears bland enough. It requires media, non-governmental organisations and other non-profit organisations to register as ‘pursuing the interests of a foreign power’ if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad. The governing party says the law is necessary to stem what it deems as harmful foreign influence over Georgia’s political scene and prevent unidentified foreign actors from trying to destabilise it. But not so fast, says the opposition, calling the new law the “Russia law” because Moscow uses identical legislation passed in 2012 to stigmatise independent news media and NGOs critical of the Kremlin and crack down on any dissent. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, perceives foreign-funded NGO’s to be one of the biggest threats to his grip on power. NGOs can give a voice to those that are unrepresented and powerless, and are vital in fostering civil society. This freedom is rejected by Putinism and the dictator has made targeting ‘foreign’ organisations a major priority.
Russia already effectively occupies one fifth of Georgia’s territory. After the 2003 uprising, known as the ‘Rose Revolution’ which rid the country of former Soviet Foreign Minister Edward Shevardnadze who was president at the time, Georgia embarked on a dizzyingly ambitious reform programme, stamping out corruption and putting the country on a firmly western trajectory, tilting it away from Moscow. By way of retaliation, Moscow fought a short but shocking war with Georgia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, which it then considered independent from Georgia. In response, Georgia considers the two republics to be Russian occupied territories, as does most of the world. Analysts see a worrying similarity to the Ukrainian regions of Donets and Luhansk, the defence of which was one of Russia’s excuses to invade Ukraine in 2022.
Georgia’s current governing party, Georgian Dream, was founded in 2011 and won majorities in the following three general elections. It was created partly as a reaction to the decade of rule of the United National Movement, which became unpopular because of its neoliberal economic policy, punitive criminal justice system and confrontational approach to Russia. Initially popular and sporting a pro-EU policy, in recent years it has pivoted away from the West and has been accused of drifting back into Russia’s geopolitical orbit. Many in Georgia have become deeply suspicious of Georgian Dream’s founder, Putin-linked billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, believed to be the man in full control of Georgian politics.
Said to be worth at least $5 billion, a third of the country’s GDP, Ivanishvili claims to be withdrawn from Georgian politics, but in reality is seen as the power behind the throne, the ‘eminence grise’ operating from the shadows. Ivanishvili chooses the country’s prime ministers and three of the last four have been former managers of his companies. Georgia’s interior minister is his former bodyguard, its former health minister was his wife’s dentist, and its education minister was one of his children’s maths tutors. In the hills overlooking Tbilisi, Ivanishvili has a futuristic mansion, said to have a shark infested pool. Determined to thwart the man they see as Putin’s puppet, the tens of thousands of protestors on the streets believe that if he prevails he will end their dream of closer ties with Europe and eventual membership of the European Union.
Their fears may prevail. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell was critical of the new law, saying last week that it was “a very bad development for Georgia and its people. The law is incompatible with EU values and standards.” Georgia applied for EU membership last march, but was not granted candidate status, and will have to first implement several reforms, including strengthening the independence of the country’s judiciary.
All will depend on the outcome of Georgia’s next general election, due on 26 October, described by many as a referendum for or against Europe. According to the latest polls, 86 percent of Georgians support EU membership, but the outcome should not be taken for granted. The new law will give the government power to crack down on the opposition and already there is plenty of evidence of violence and intimidation against anyone resisting those in power. Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has announced plans to create a database of demonstrators, which will be published online to name and shame those accused of transgression. Critics see as this as yet another move to discredit the government’s opponents.
Accusations are growing of more sinister tactics by the government. Images of large numbers of heavily disguised assailants of those opposing the government in Tbilisi has drawn comparisons to Ukrainian pro-government thugs known as ‘titushki’, paid for by the embattled government of Victor Yanukovych to cause disruption and attack protestors during the Ukrainian revolution in 2014. There are fears that this model could well be adopted by Georgia’s government as the October election draws near to ensure the re-election of Ivanishvili’s party.
If it happens, once again the Russian bear will have its claws into Georgia. The Georgian Dream will have become the Georgian Nightmare.
John Dobson is a former British diplomat, who also worked in UK Prime Minister John Major’s office between 1995 and 1998. He is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Plymouth.