The Daily Beat: 13 May

Following the huge rally of May 11 when more than 100 thousand people took to the streets, gathering at Tbilisi’s Europe Square, on May 12, protesters gathered again at Rustaveli Avenue for an overnight sit-in around the Parliament building ahead of the final reading of the foreign agents bill. In the early morning of May 13, the police completely dispersed the peaceful demonstrators, clearing the entrances of the parliament building. Around twenty protesters were arrested, some of them severely beaten by police.

On May 13, the Public Defender issued a statement saying that “in the facts of attacks on representatives of opposition parties, journalists and participants of the rally there are signs of persecution of people based on political [views], activity and opinion, which categorically contradicts the individual rights of people guaranteed by the Constitution and international acts, as well as the basic principles of a democratic society and rule of law.”

On Monday morning, the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted in the third and final hearing for adopting the foreign agents bill against the background of the overnight protests. The committee voting was held in less than a minute without deliberations. Most opposition MPs were delayed outside the parliament by the police, and the Georgian Dream MPs were not present in full, either. Despite ongoing mass protests and student strikes, the ruling party is expected to adopt the highly controversial foreign agents bill in the final reading on May 14.  

During the third press conference in three days, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the US Assistant Secretary of State Jim O’Brien’s request to meet with Bidzina Ivanishvili was rejected, citing the “sanctions” problem. PM Kobakhidze admitted that in recent months Ivanishvili also refused to meet other foreign diplomats and politicians, further adding “The reason for the refusal was the same in all cases. Ivanishvili said that he was already under de facto sanctions with USD 2 billion frozen that he had entrusted to the West.” Jim O’Brien is scheduled to visit Tbilisi on May 14.

The Chairpersons of the Foreign Affairs Committees of the Parliaments of Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, and the German Bundestag began their visit to Georgia to hold meetings with the representatives of the government, opposition, and civil society. The visit comes amid a crisis caused by the ruling Georgian Dream party’s attempt to pass a law on foreign agents. “I don’t see any chance for a bright future for Georgia if the government won’t withdraw this law,” Michael Roth, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag told journalists after a meeting with opposition representatives.

EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy lead Spokesperson Peter Stano “strongly” condemned “acts of intimidation, threats, and physical assaults” against anti-Foreign Agents Bill protesters, media, politicians, and CSOs, saying “these are brutal actions and these brutal actions we’ve seen also in the night from yesterday to today.”

In her Instagram post, the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock also reacted to the Tbilisi protests. “The people in Georgia are showing by the tens of thousands that Europe’s heart beats not only between Warsaw and Lisbon. It is also being carried onto the streets of Tbilisi by this democratic, vibrant, and critical civil society,” wrote the German Foreign Minister.

Four MEPs wrote a letter to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, asking him to prepare “targeted sanctions against those in Georgia who are steering the country away from its European future.” In a letter addressed to the HRVP Borell, the MEPs also asked whether the HR/VP plans to press for the EU to suspend all high-level engagement with the Georgian government and to summon the Georgian Ambassador to express the EU’s condemnation if the law is passed.

According to a letter distributed by RFE/RL’s Georgian bureau, the Foreign Ministers from 12 EU countries have asked the EU Commission for an oral update on the impact of Georgia’s adoption of a foreign agents law on the country’s EU integration path. The letter, dated May 10, is addressed to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and European Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, and signed by 12 top European diplomats, including German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Minister for European and Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné.

On May 12, 124 Georgian civil society organizations issued a joint statement, reiterating that the Foreign Agents draft law which has been adopted in the second hearing “is a Russian Law in its goals and content, is directed against the Western course supported by the Georgian people, and it must be withdrawn unconditionally.” According to the statement, “No amount of amendment can reverse the devastating effects that this law will have on our society.”