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One of Georgia’s most senior parliamentarians has doubled down on conspiratorial claims that a coalition of Western-backed NGOs and other shadowy forces are working to undermine the country, as outrage grows over a “foreign agent” law that the EU warns will torpedo Tbilisi’s membership ambitions.
Speaking to The News Agents podcast, Mariam Lashkhi, an MP from the governing Georgian Dream party and first deputy chair of the parliament’s foreign relations committee, defended the proposed legislation as necessary to protect Georgia’s sovereignty.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the chair of the Georgian Dream party, who amassed much of his vast personal fortune in Russia, has claimed that a “global war party” is responsible for creating conflicts across the world and dragging countries into wars with Moscow. “It is this global force that first forced the confrontation of Georgia with Russia and then put Ukraine in even worse peril,” Ivanishvili said at a rally last month, accusing “NGOs and the radical opposition” of doing their bidding.
Asked to explain whom Ivanishvili was referring to, Lashkhi volunteered that “freemasons” were behind schemes across the world. “We were seeing they do have the influence on global politics,” she insisted, but declined to name any other groups supposedly responsible.
“Today, when me, myself, I am involved in foreign relations and sometimes when I have the partnership and then they say that, well, you are OK and you are doing well but then there is an additional voice,” she went on.
Asked on a recent visit to the South Caucasus country for his thoughts on the idea of a “global war party” — a notion that echoes pro-Russian propaganda — Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis burst out laughing. However, “it’s not a joke because it’s a serious thing and it’s the Kremlin’s narrative,” he said.
“The only war party is in Moscow,” Landsbergis added. “This is the party that attacked Georgia in 2008; this is the party that attacked Ukraine in 2014, and is currently waging a war against Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is our obligation to those who value freedom to fight this party and win this war,” he said.
Tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets in recent weeks to oppose Georgian Dream’s proposals to require NGOs, campaign groups and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.” Brussels has said the move is “incompatible with European values,” warning it would bar Georgia’s path to joining as a full member just six months after it was granted candidate status.
Police have used tear gas, riot shields and batons against protesters, and swooped in to arrest organizers and opposition politicians. At the same time, the government is pushing forward with a planned law to outlaw “LGBT propaganda,” which critics say would ban everything from film screenings to annual Pride events. The move would mirror rules used by Russia to persecute minority groups.
On Saturday, the chair of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, confirmed he would introduce legislation in Washington that would open the door to sanctioning leading Georgian Dream politicians.
