Georgia’s ongoing struggle is about breaking free from Russian influence

While Russia meticulously orchestrates its interference in Georgia, Brussels seems oblivious to the increasing urgency of the situation, writes Tinatin Akhvlediani.

Tinatin Akhvlediani is a research fellow in the EU Foreign Policy Unit at CEPS.

In 2023, Georgia found itself in the spotlight due to introducing a Russian-style bill on ‘Agents of Foreign Influence’ that threatened to derail the country’s European journey. The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party was forced to drop the bill due to intense public opposition, and shortly after, it was finally granted EU candidate status.

The bill is back with the amended title, the ‘transparency of foreign influence’, despite the GD’s promise to unconditionally withdraw it last year.

Now, Georgians are again taking to the streets, but the struggle goes beyond this deeply unpopular legislative proposal. It’s about breaking Georgia free from Russian interference and finally joining the European family.

Like a similar Russian law, if passed, it would require non-commercial legal entities and media outlets to be labelled as ‘organisations pursuing the interest of a foreign influence’ if they receive more than 20% of their total annual funding from abroad.

This would subject them to a separate legal regime, impose cumbersome reporting requirements and introduce heavy administrative fines in the case of non-compliance.

Suffice it to say, the Russian version went on to gradually eliminate many civil society and media organisations within the country. Georgia’s bill has already been found to breach the European Convention of Human Rights and has had a chilling effect on media outlets and civil society, particularly those working on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

The bill restricts civil liberties and media freedom, violating several conditions attached to Georgia’s EU candidacy. It is also just one in a series proposed by the GD that breaches the conditions that Georgia must abide by to accede to the EU eventually. As the EU’s High Representative Josep Borrell noted, such legislation ‘can compromise Georgia’s EU path’.

A bleak domestic picture

The GD, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is tied to Russia, cannot openly admit that he’s deviating from the European path, given that nearly 90 % of Georgians support EU integration.

Instead, in a notoriously provocative speech, Ivanishvili argued that the controversial bill would ‘bolster Georgia’s sovereignty’, linking it to a global conspiracy theory by suggesting that decisions are orchestrated by a ‘global party of war,’ which instigated Georgia and Ukraine’s confrontation with Russia.

He accused NGOs and the ‘radical’ opposition of serving this agenda. Naturally, he pledged to persecute his political opponents after the parliamentary elections and promised that a ‘sovereign and dignified’ Georgia would still join the EU by 2030.

Last year, massive protests forced the GD to abandon the bill, but with elections looming, it could grant the GD control over civil society and the media, thus helping it engineer another electoral victory.

Georgia’s President Zourabishvili is the Georgian people’s primary representative, but her influence is limited, as her veto powers can be easily overridden by the GD, which has happened several times recently.

What should the EU do?

The European Parliament (EP) has adopted a resolution suggesting personal sanctions on ‘Georgia’s sole oligarch’, Ivanishvili. His fear of sanctions is definitely real, as he has already laid the groundwork for him to dodge such sanctions.

Suspending visa liberalisation would only punish the Georgian people, not the GD and the oligarch who runs it. Halting Georgia’s candidate status would also savagely strip away the European future from the people who have shown time and time again their dedication to joining the EU. Besides, suspending candidacy would again play into the hands of the GD and Russia.

Instead, the EU should actively address the GD’s actions. Council President Charles Michel should go beyond making phone calls and should actually go and visit Georgia with other high-level EU officials, building on the recent visit to Georgia by DG NEAR’s director-general to increase the pressure on the government before the bill has passed its third reading.

If the bill passes, the EU should clearly warn of suspending pre-accession support and halting Georgia’s progress in the accession process. The EU should also increase pressure on the Georgian government to stop violent crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators and fully support civil society, the independent media, and the people.

If the bill is adopted, it will require a change in government during the upcoming parliamentary elections to ‘correct all the laws that do not correspond to Georgia’s European integration’, as President Zurabishvili noted. Thus, the EU should increase its monitoring efforts to ensure the elections are conducted correctly in the face of likely GD threats and intimidation.

As stated by Michael Roth, ‘Tbilisi is currently the true capital of Europe.’ While Moscow meticulously orchestrates its interference through Ivanishvili and the GD, Brussels seems oblivious to the increasing urgency of the situation.

The question to ask is, following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, can the EU afford to lose yet another European country to Russia simply because it chose a European future? If the answer is a resounding ‘no’, then the EU has no time to lose – it must act now to help Georgia safeguard its European choice.