According to researchers, the escalation of the situation in Georgia is linked to its status as an EU candidate country. The Italian foreign policy institute ISPI closely monitors the situation in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus and considers the recent protests in Georgia and Russia’s reaction to them to be serious. There are already comparisons being drawn to Ukraine. In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, riot police used force to break up the protests, resulting in arrests and injuries to protesters.
The background of the situation stems from a legal project proposed by the Georgian government, requiring NGOs and other actors that receive significant funding from foreign sources to declare themselves as “agents of foreign powers.” The bill was attempted to be passed about a year ago, but due to protests, the government had to retract it. The bill is seen as contradicting European values. Additionally, Georgia’s status as an EU candidate country plays a role in the tensions.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Joseph Borrell, condemned the violent dispersal of demonstrations in Georgia this week, emphasizing the importance of upholding the right to peaceful assembly. ISPI researchers suggest that the bill exacerbated the situation, highlighting the political crisis in Georgia between pro-European integration parties and an increasingly authoritarian populist government.
The Russian government’s response to the protests has been to accuse the West of stoking anti-Russian sentiment among Georgians and to defend the controversial bill. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have both taken this stance, aiming to delegitimize the protests and portray them as connected to the West. ISPI researcher Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti noted the vitality and determination of Georgian civil society in the face of these challenges, drawing comparisons to the activism seen in Ukraine.