![Georgia: the regime goes into force to muzzle the opposition Georgia: the regime goes into force to muzzle the opposition](https://media.lesechos.com/api/v1/images/view/66435a4c45781a111f7e0618/1280x720/01101056108450-web-tete.jpg)
The Georgian Parliament opened Pandora’s box with the vote This Tuesday of the controversial “Russian law”. Opposition deputies and the ruling party exchanged punches at the opening of the session, leading to the approval, by 84 votes to 30, of this text which will classify as “agent in the service of a power foreign » any media or NGO receiving more than 20% of its funding from abroad.
The protesters, coming from all regions, social backgrounds and political horizons, formed a procession of 100,000 people on Saturday evening. An unprecedented demonstration since the “Rose Revolution” of 2003. Despite the fear of repression, illustrated by a few violent arrests and a police charge supported by water cannons just after the vote, there were still around 30,000 on Tuesday evening. , in front of Parliament guarded by masked individuals. After spokespersons called for a general strike from Wednesday, a challenge in a country where the right to strike is very poorly protected, a procession headed in the evening towards the Place des Héros along an avenue lined with numerous luxury stores with illuminated storefronts; not a single broken window.
The reasons for a revolt
The law is described as Russian by the protesters, because it is the copy of a measure introduced by the Kremlin in 2012. This made it possible to blacklist and ultimately silence almost all dissident organizations. The Georgian regime claims that this is to ensure the transparency of NGOs and the media, which reject the offensive term “organization in the service of a foreign power”. Most, out of a total of 400 affected, will refuse to register, explains Levan Tsutskiridze, director of the Eastern European Center for Multiparty Democracy (EECMD).
Independent media and NGOs risk having to cease their activity due to lack of local funding. Because it is suicidal for a company to advertise or finance an organization that is displeasing to those in power, adds Levan Tsutskiridze. It is “a national resistance movement against Moscow, as in 1973, when demonstrators pushed back the USSR on a project to downgrade the Georgian language, in addition today to an attempt to capture the State by an oligarch,” he adds from the meeting room of his organization, whose blinds are drawn down to avoid outside eyes.
Most activists against “Russian law” receive threatening anonymous calls or see the door to their homes barred with the word “traitor”. Around ten were beaten up by local thugs, nicknamed “titouchkis” in reference to their Ukrainian counterparts in 2014. Ukrainian flags are next to those of Georgia in the demonstrations and on the surrounding walls.
Digital agility
The hundred or so organizations involved in the protest do not let themselves be intimidated and prove to be particularly agile thanks to Facebook, Telegram and Instagram loops capable of organizing a gathering in a few minutes and coordinating logistics, care, food and accommodation. One of these networks, “Someone with you”, brought together 170,000 people barely two weeks after its creation in reaction to a violently anti-Western speech by the regime’s number one.
Activists know that their digital networks are being monitored and even hacked. “We make do with it,” recognizes Kristo, one of the key figures in the protest who presents himself under a pseudonym, also a mother who had never campaigned before the bill was tabled. If everyone strives to scrupulously respect legality, the use of Signal encrypted messaging is essential when a certain discretion is required. The purchase of phones intended solely for this use, with a foreign SIM card, is booming.
A crisis that will last
The passing of the law will probably not mark the end of the crisis. The pro-European president, Salomé Zourabichvili, will veto it shortly after. Barring any drama, the ruling party will overcome it thanks to the two-thirds majority it has in the Assembly. This will take a few weeks, during which the protest will intensify. Almost all universities have been on strike since Monday, and the government sent a circular asking professors to disassociate themselves from the movement. Several left their posts Tuesday evening. Strikes in public companies and services are still only in the planning stages, but many of them are playing into the hands of demonstrators by releasing them from work early to allow them to join the parades.
The head of the sanctions committee at the State Department, James O’Brien, is in Tbilisi, where billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling party, refused to receive him. He was able to speak with the Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze. The White House affirmed that this law was “incompatible” with the approach to integration with the West and would lead the United States to “reevaluate” its relationship with Georgia. From a generally well-informed source, James O’Brien is said to have threatened Georgian Dream parliamentarians and the country’s main leaders, as well as their families, with sanctions, visas and asset freezes.
The adoption of the controversial law constitutes a “serious obstacle” on the path to membership of the European Union, an EU spokesperson warned on Tuesday, while the country has enjoyed candidate status since December . However, it seems that, behind the language on a march towards the European Union “at our own pace and with dignity”, the government does not care as long as it maintains good relations with Moscow and Beijing…
Legislative elections in sight
The demonstrators say they are convinced that the movement will not subside after the vote on the law, “the summer will not be quiet for those in power who hope that we will all go to the beach, or cook skewers”, explains one of them. ‘between them. In their sights are the legislative elections of October 26 – hoping to avoid fraud – with in particular the crucial question of the opening of polling stations abroad, largely supported by the opposition. A quarter of Georgia’s 3 million voters reside there.
Another problem for the opposition: how to translate on the political level a revolt originating from civil society and without a visible leader. The political parties, which have been far behind since the bill was tabled on April 7, must also regroup. They hope not to be affected by the discredit suffered by the main one among them, the UNM of ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili.