Georgia’s ruling party intensifies disinformation tactics amid ‘foreign agent’ law standoff

As thousands of Georgians are protesting their country’s shift towards an anti-Western policy and the adoption of Russian-style laws, the ruling Georgian Dream government has ramped up its disinformation tactics.

Despite calls from the West and the biggest protests since Georgia’s independence urging the abandonment of the law, Georgian Dream moved swiftly, overrode a presidential veto and adopted the controversial law on 28 May.

“This law, in its essence and spirit, is fundamentally Russian, contradicting our constitution and all European standards. It thus represents an obstacle to our European path,” President Salome Zourabichvili stated. 

The Venice Commission published its urgent opinion on Georgia’s Foreign Agents Law, strongly recommending its repeal due to fundamental flaws that threaten freedoms of association, expression, privacy, and democracy.

Two names, same Russian-style law

The draft law on Transparency of Foreign Influence is widely seen as a replica of the Draft Law on Foreign Agents from 2023, albeit under a new title, “Organisation Pursuing the Interests of a Foreign Power”.

Last year, the draft law was initiated by the Georgian Dream satellite People’s Power faction, while this year, the initiative came directly from the ruling party. The People’s Power came out as openly anti-Western from the moment of their public slip from the ruling Georgian Dream. 

The law would oblige organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare they are “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”. 

The law specifically targets civil society organisations and media (including broadcasting, print, and online media) that receive foreign funding. Shortly after the adoption, it became publicly known that the ruling party amended the law to be able to also target private individuals. 

The law defines foreign power broadly to include agencies of any foreign government entities. Given that the vast majority of civil society in Georgia is supported by various Western grants, the law directly targets Western support in the country.

“The Russian law will not work in our country! It will remain a piece of paper that no one will obey!”- Non-governmental organisations and independent media representatives announced disobedience, stating they will not register in the special register, despite the law imposing excessive sanctions on them. For example, the penalty for failing to register is 25,000 GEL (over €8,000).

Government disinformation, repressions 

The government propaganda has been heavily emphasising that the Russian-style law is European in nature and similar to the American FARA, despite the contrary arguments and statements from the Venice Commission, ODIHR, President Zourabichvili, EU Ambassador in Georgia, European and American leaders.

Georgian Dream officials continuously stressed that the introduction of an extra measure, requiring annual declarations from NGOs and media outlets, aimed solely to enhance transparency and strengthen Georgia’s sovereignty and independence, without labelling any individuals as adversaries.

The propaganda was spread via members of the ruling party, along with their official platforms, affiliated media outlets, and Facebook pages. However, once Meta labelled them as false information, they resorted to displaying their propaganda posters on the streets.

Transparency International Georgia suggested that the law ”has nothing to do with transparency, just like the law passed in Russia in 2012″.

“Everyone knows where NGOs get their money from: Transparency [International Georgia] fills out several funding applications; we pay all our taxes; all grant agreements are uploaded on the government website; we have records that can be checked and audited by the Ministry of Finance – this is not about transparency, this is about eliminating critical media and civil society, this is part of the Russian playbook that the government is following,” they said.

Following the emergence of thousands, tens of thousands, and in some instances, hundreds of thousands of individuals protesting against the Russian law in the streets of Tbilisi and other Georgian cities, despite disinformation efforts by the Georgian Dream, the ineffectiveness of this disinformation campaign and the prevailing pro-European sentiment within society became evident. In response, the Georgian Dream initiated harsh repressive measures to quell the protests.

Since May, protesters against the foreign agents law, along with human rights defenders and often their family members, have been receiving harassing phone calls from foreign and Georgian numbers. 

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association suggested that due to the frequency, systematic nature, and targeted recipients of these calls, there is reasonable suspicion of illegal data processing against the citizens, potentially utilising state authorities’ databases.

On 8 May, Parliament Speaker Papuashvili announced that his party is compiling a database of individuals involved in “violent, blackmail, threatening, or other illegal activities”, as well as those openly supporting such actions. 

Between 9 and 11 May, key civil society organisations, working on corruption, elections, disinformation and good governance, and leaders woke up to coordinated defamatory and intimidatory campaigns, with offensive signs, and posters on their cars, front doors, home walls, and outside their offices.

These posters labelled them as “agents,” “faggots,” and “enemies of the state.” 

In the same timeframe, amidst ongoing peaceful protests, water cannons were deployed, tear gas and pepper spray were frequently employed, and citizens were subjected to brutal beatings and arbitrary detentions. 

Additionally, a number of opponents of the Russian law, including political and civil figures, as well as individuals from various professions, have reportedly been ambushed, attacked, and severely beaten by hired thugs known as titushky.

West as an enemy

On April 29, the honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, delivered an Orwellian speech that marked the party’s definitive shift towards an anti-Western foreign policy, a stance it has been discreetly pursuing for years.

Ivanishvili accused a Western “global war party” of interfering in Georgia’s affairs, asserting that significant global decisions are made by this entity.

He further accused this force of initiating Georgia’s confrontation with Russia and exacerbating the one in Ukraine.

Ivanishvili said Georgia was governed not by an elected government but by a revolutionary committee imposed from outside.

He labelled NGOs as pseudo-elites nurtured by foreign countries.

“They have no homeland; they do not love their country or their people because they do not really consider them to be their own.” Ivanishvili trumpeted conspiracies against the West and NGOs, who he believes are the sole threat to Georgia’s sovereignty.

Government propaganda relies entirely on these conspiracy theories and misinformation, going beyond publicly known government critics.

To undermine the protest, the Georgian Dream propaganda machine brands protesters as affiliated with the global party, as homeland-less individuals and radicals.

This took the extreme form when senior Georgian Dream MP Mariam Lashkhi conspired that a coalition comprising Western-backed NGOs, the Global War party, and FreeMasons were working to undermine the country.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze even accused European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi of blackmail, citing potential consequences from Western politicians if the veto were to be overcome in the context of Slovakian PM Fico.

For years Ivanishvili and his team have been nurturing the narratives about the mysterious external force “Global War Party“, the “Ukrainization of Georgia,” and the West wanting to open a “second front” in Georgia, mirroring the disinformation and propaganda spread by the Kremlin and making it the West VS Georgian sovereignty trap.

Besides Russia and Belarus, Georgia isn’t the sole country where legislation has been under discussion in recent years aimed at restricting organisations funded from the West and accused of serving foreign interests. Solvakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kyrgyzstan are also among nations grappling with similar bills.

The trend of enacting such laws is spreading alarmingly along the borders of the EU, representing a perilous effort to extend Russia’s spheres of influence into the West. The foreign agents legislation is set to be signed next week, with its implementation slated for 60 days thereafter. Meanwhile, protests persist in the country — “Georgia will never be Russia” — as political dynamics evolve in the lead-up to autumn elections.

This article is part of the FREIHEIT media project on Europe’s Neighbourhood, funded by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF).

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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