The Georgia Foreign Agents Bill: Rules for Thee Not for Me

The hysteria over Georgia’s failed attempt to reign in foreign NGOs is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of the “rules based world order.”

From RT:

Tbilisi’s main street, Rustaveli Avenue, was blocked for several days this week as thousands of people chanted anti-government slogans in front of the parliament building and sang the Georgian national anthem. Even more protesters gathered at the square in the evenings. By nightfall, the enraged crowd was throwing firecrackers, stones, and Molotov cocktails at the police, attempting to take down an iron fence and storm the parliament. The police used water cannons to promptly put out the fires and showered the crowds with water, at the same time spraying tear gas to disperse those present...

The protests were initially triggered by a bill ‘On the Transparency of Foreign Influence’, which was adopted by the Georgian parliament on its first reading. On Tuesday, 76 deputies voted in favor of adopting the bill and 13 deputies opposed it.

During the discussion stage, MPs from opposition parties said they would not allow the so-called “Russian law” to be considered in parliament. This resulted in a fight between opponents and supporters of the legislation. Deputies from the National Movement and Strategy Aghmashenebeli opposition parties were expelled from the chamber. Triggered by the situation, the latter’s leader Giorgi Vashadze called on all opponents of the bill to join the rally.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Georgian Interior Ministry reported that 50 law enforcement officers had been injured in clashes with protesters. Calls from the police to “stay within the bounds of the law” did not work.

Notice how opponents of the bill accused it of being “Russian” style, and this claim was universally repeated by western media. But why Russian? Why not American? The language of the bill, after all, closely resembles the USA’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). And, incidentally, this isn’t the only American law on the books that a foreign national can run afoul of. Consider, for example, the arrest and lengthy imprisonment of Maria Butina, who was arrested, publicly smeared, and sentenced to a lengthy prison term at the height of the “Russiagate” hysteria in 2018.

I find it particularly hilarious to see denizens from “civilized” Europe hysterically whining about Georgia’s oppression of foreign NGOs when they themselves have shut down every Russian news outlet of any significance in the EU and UK. Rules for thee but not for me.

Not only is this hypocrisy, it’s pure projection. In reality, the “collective West” uses NGOs as a hammer to control and influence foreign governments. Consider these numbers from the RT article I linked above:

The strong reaction to the initiative does not seem surprising considering how many foreign NGOs are active in Georgia. In a review of the Georgian civil sector published in 2020, the Asian Development Bank indicated that there is no special legislation on non-profit or non-governmental organizations in the country, although they are listed in the general register of companies, which as of the beginning of 2019 consisted of 12,800 organizations. At the same time, the vast majority of such organizations rely on foreign funding, according to the Georgian national statistics service Sakstat. As of spring 2022, there were 7,972 companies with foreign founders operating in the country. With a total population of 3.7 million, there are around 460 people per foreign NPO in Georgia. For comparison, as of November 2022, there were over 500 active “foreign agents” registered in the US, under FARA.

Also bear in mind, with that much money flowing into Georgia, it is probably fairly easy to organize protests to protect the system. Western employers typically pay much more than local businesses, so anything perceived as a threat to this money pot would understandably upset people enjoying employment at a foreign NGO.

For other examples – in the past year I have written about the malignant influence of western NGOs in Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, and Armenia. In the case of Georgia, the motivation to keep western NGOs strong should be obvious. Since 2008, Georgia has gradually shifted from a position of hostility toward Russia to, more or less, neutrality. I have shared this photo from their war in 2008 and I’ll share it again:

It would be nice for NATO if they could also “fight to the last Georgian” as well as the last Ukrainian, but actual Georgians don’t seem to have the same enthusiasm to losing their entire male population to trench warfare. They threw in the towel fast enough in 2008 to avoid the devastation Ukraine suffered, and also didn’t dig trenches for eight years. Protracted warfare wouldn’t have benefited anyone, and it certainly would have harmed the Georgians more than anyone else.

The challenge to NATO influencers in Georgia is that their fight is an asymmetric one. In other words, it takes more effort to sway Georgia away from Russia than toward it. Obviously, Russia shares a border with Georgia, and is their largest overall trading partner besides China – and really – their most important one. Georgians could probably manage without Chinese smartphones and TV sets, but they wouldn’t do so well without Russian energy imports. Without Georgian products on Russian shelves and Russian gas flowing the other way, it’s easy to imagine Georgia suffering economic collapse. Such is the price of democracy.

Here’s a good rule of thumb for analyzing current events, particularly “grassroots protests.” If a group of people are waving their own flag, then they are probably patriots with good intentions (even if they’re wrong or misguided). If they are waving the flags of a foreign nation, then they are probably traitors. There are exceptions (like for example, a war protest and counter-protest in which people are expressing support for one side or the other), but it is still unusual. Pride and national priorities should start with their own country, not the USA, not the EU, and certainly not NATO.

Ian Kummer

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