Georgia swells with protests under the boot of a billionaire

Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose wealth is about a third of the country’s GDP, watches from the wings as a controversial foreign agent law threatens to widen gulf with the West

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/georgia-protests-foreign-agent-bill-bidzina-ivanishvili-rlkvc5g8l

https://archive.ph/HGwUD


When Ted Jonas arrived in Georgia from the United States 30 years ago he paid little heed to the frequent power cuts, absent heating and street gang warfare. Instead the Ivy League graduate fell in love, married a Georgian and ran successful legal practices, in the process becoming a Georgian citizen. Two weeks ago he was beaten, kicked and punched in the head and body by the security forces, arrested and dumped in a police van and then held for hours in a police station, vomiting and concussed. Dozens of others were arrested alongside him.



Their crime? Taking part in mass protests against a draft law that has triggered some of the biggest unrest in the small Caucasian country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. At his house in the historic heart of the capital, Tbilisi, Jonas was still sporting a watery black eye and suffering from bouts of dizziness. But rather than blame his assailants he cited the influence of Bidzina Ivanishvili, an enigmatic billionaire who lives in a vast glass and steel mansion on the hills overlooking the city. “What’s happening here right now is an absolute face-off between people who want Georgia to have a European future and the person who does not,” he said. Further protests were expected on Saturday night.


The draft legislation, which has passed two of three readings in parliament, would require NGOs and independent media that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents — or face considerable fines. The government maintains that this step is essential to protect the country from foreign influence. Protesters see it as a direct attack on a vibrant civil society and the latest governmental step pushing Georgia back into the dubious embrace of the Kremlin.



“Life has never been very easy here,” said Natasha Lomouri, director of PEN International Georgia, who remembers protesting on the streets of Tbilisi as a child on April 9, 1989, when the Soviet army, with the help of tanks and poison gas, opened fire on peaceful protesters, killing 21 people. “But now it’s the most dangerous time since independence.” The government first attempted to introduce the foreign agent legislation last year but withdrew it due to mass protests. Now, with the nation facing elections in October, the law is back and is this time pitched as an attempt to protect Georgia from imported ideas such as the promotion of equality for LGBT+ minorities. Such liberties remain overwhelmingly unpopular in the predominantly conservative Orthodox Christian country.



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