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Georgia that the foreign agents bill is incompatible with EU values.
After days of violent protests, the government early this month backed down on the law, although the Georgian Dream Party has not excluded supporting some similar proposal later.
It has also been criticised for the deteriorating health in jail of former president Mikhail Saakashvili, whom the government has refused to let leave the country for treatment. The EU issued a formal diplomatic note about the onetime leader of the opposition UNM in February.
Broken democracy
The other ECHR webinar panellists expressed fears that any laws that the government is forced to pass by the EU would be abused by the Georgian Dream-dominated judicial system to target the opposition.
“Georgian Dream has the whole political system locked up,” said Jaba Devdariani, founder of the Civil.ge news website, adding that “representative democracy was broken” and that is why protesters are taking to the street instead.
He accused the government of making only token efforts to achieve progress towards EU accession, while at the same time courting the Kremlin.
“Georgia has voted for sanctions against Russia...It has done what the West wanted,” he said. “On the other hand, the domestic political rhetoric has been the opposite.”
The government has also prevented some independent journalists critical of the Kremlin’s war policy from entering the country.
Journalist Regis Gente said the government could not make an “open
move” against EU accession, given that three quarters of Georgians support membership, but he accused it of “distancing the country from the West and moving it to the Russian sphere of influence”.
Devdariani said the government’s rhetoric was often similar to Moscow’s and it had created an “alternative reality”.
“In this alternative reality the Georgian government is creating, Georgia is becoming part of the Russian orbit once again.”
Mathernova agreed that “Russia is
a very active player” in Georgia, with “very strong hybrid warfare since 2008”, when Russia invaded the country and consolidated its hold on a quarter of its territory.
BRICS bloc advances another step as Saudi Arabia joins China’s SCO
Ben Aris in Berlin
Saudi Arabia's cabinet approved a decision to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on April 6, cementing the increasingly close ties between the Middle East oil producer and China.
The move is also another brick in the emerging closer ties between what
can be called the BRICS bloc of leading emerging markets, the creation of which has been catalysed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
The SCO is a political and security union of Eurasian states and a key institution used by Russia and China to unite and facilitate co-ordination interests in the Eurasian and Asian space, outside the Western-dominated organisations. Membership includes Russia, China, Central Asia and India, among others.
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The US also applied for observer status of the SCO in the early 2000s but was rejected in 2005.
The decision comes only a month
after China brokered a reconciliation between Iran and Saudi after a seven- year break, brokered by Beijing, seen as a major diplomatic breakthrough.
Washington objected to the tie-up, citing security concerns, which
were ignored by Riyadh. Previously close, tensions between Riyadh and Washington has risen dramatically in recent years, since the US became a net exporter of oil following the so-called shale revolution. Previously the US was dependent on Saudi for its oil supplies.
Saudi also thumbed its nose at US objections to OPEC+'s decision last
month to cut production by more than 1mn barrels per day (bpd) of oil to push up prices. The White House said that production should be increased to bring prices down. Analysts have speculated that the decision to cut production
was partly made to support Russia,
a member of OPEC+, by earning more money from its oil exports.
The SCO is one of many non-aligned organisations that is being built up
the BRICS bloc that is becoming increasingly active. Russia has taken over the chairmanship of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) this January and is intending to transform the trade club of a number of Former Soviet Union (FSU) into a more dynamic organisation of economic integration as well as expand its membership to more countries in Southeast Asia.