Page 66 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

66 I Eurasia bne June 2024
Bidzina Ivanishvili blamed a global conspiracy by the Western “Party of War” for Georgia’s ills and promised to use the 'foreign agents law' to repress the opposition United Nation Movement in
a speech straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook. / bne IntelliNews
Georgian oligarch Ivanishvili advocates repression, blames Western “Party of War” for country’s ills
in Georgia, but Georgian Dream will prevent this, advocating for governance elected by the people, not appointed from outside.”
Georgian Dream is in the process of trying to introduce the so-called foreign agents law, also known as the “Russian law”, that will mark any organisation that receives more than 20% of its funding from abroad as a “foreign agent” and puts their operations under scrutiny. Putin has used the same law to crush the liberal opposition and press in a brutal crackdown that gathered momentum after opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 and was arrested. Navalny died in prison on February 16.
While Ivanishvili is not overtly pro- Russia, his speech makes it clear the ruling party intends to use the foreign agents law in a similar fashion to Russia to crack down on civil society and repress the freedom of the press as it seeks to consolidate its hold on power.
“The important decisions in this world are taken by the global 'Party of War'.
It is this global force that first forced the confrontation of Georgia with Russia and then put Ukraine in even worse peril. NGOs and radical opposition are acting on their behalf. The laws that we are proposing are there to expose those dark linkages,” Ivanishvili said, sowing conspiracy theories as a justification for the foreign agents law.
He also threatened that after the elections in October, Georgian Dream would launch a crackdown on the opposition, which is led by the United National Movement party (UNM) of former President Mikheil Saakashvili. He said the UMM would face "the harsh political and legal judgment it deserves".
The government bussed in thousands of workers and civil servants to Tbilisi on April 29 to hold a counter rally to demonstrations that have rocked the Georgian capital for two weeks against the foreign agents law.
In his keynote address Ivanishvili claimed that during 2004-2012 Georgia
Ben Aris in Berlin
Bidzina Ivanishvili, honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has blamed a Western-led “Party of War” for all the ills Georgia has suffered in the last decade and a half, and insisted that a planned "foreign agents" bill was needed to protect the country.
The speech at a pro-government rally in the capital Tbilisi on April 29 was the oligarch's most direct intervention in politics for years, and his strong comments indicate that the Georgian Dream party that he founded is not planning to back down, despite big demonstrations against the bill over the past two weeks.
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Leading regional specialist and political analyst Thomas de Waal of Carnegie Europe said in a post on social media: “An extremely dangerous speech that will chill anyone who cares about Georgia to the bone. There will be plenty of commentary but no summary can convey the full-on conspiracy-minded paranoia. Bidzina Ivanishvili seems to believe this stuff.”
Ivanishvili said that “[the] ‘Global War Party’ wields influence over Nato and the EU, stirring conflicts between Georgia and Russia and exacerbating Ukraine's situation.”
Ivanishvili claimed that “foreign agents still aim to restore a cruel dictatorship