Not long ago, Georgia was on its way to the EU. But with both the “Russian agent law” and strict LGBTQ laws in place, a repression with Russian undertones is growing instead.
“The worst-case scenario is that Georgia becomes a new Belarus” says Ana Tavadze from the protest organization Shame Movement. The location somewhere in central Tbilisi could have been any modern office – if it weren’t for the gas masks and raincoats hanging inside the door. On a shelf among stickers and megaphones lies a cloth doll depicting Putin. He has a Georgian and a Ukrainian flag deeply inserted into each eye.
The protest organization Shame Movement has been a thorn in the side of the government since 2019. With viral campaigns and street protests, they have demanded democratic reforms and EU membership. Last year’s demonstrations
against the “Russian agent law” forced the government to back down. When the law was reintroduced in the spring of 2024, over two hundred thousand people gathered on the streets of Tbilisi to stop it.
The government responded with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons, and beatings. On Tuesday, May 28, President Salome Zourabichvili’s veto against the agent law was finally overridden. “People were crying in the streets. We all knew
then what was to come,” says Dachi Imedadze, campaign strategist for Shame Movement. First, label people as spies, traitors, and threats to the state. Then monitor, fine, and imprison them for it. That is, in very simple terms, how the “Russian agent law” can be described.
Since 2012, this is how it has been used in Russia. At first, it only applied to nongovernmental organizations, then to journalists and private individuals. Today, anyone can be considered “under the influence of a foreign power.” Fines and
prison sentences have continually increased.
In 2023, they began revoking citizenship for those labeled as “foreign agents.” With the support of the agent law, the state has liquidated human rights organizations, drained independent media, and stabbed anything associated with freedom in the back.
In Georgia, the deadline for registering “organizations that act in the interests of foreign powers” passed a couple of months ago. Women’s associations, LGBTQ movements, shelters – all with more than 20 percent foreign funding must now be
registered. Those who refuse are fined 25,000 lari (about 8, 500 EUR).
Even if they pay, the organization still ends up in the registers. To avoid being strangled by the Russian regulatory framework, many organizations have moved their offices abroad but kept staff in Georgia, Dachi explains. Others have shut down their operations entirely. Now, civil society is holding its breath, waiting to see what will happen next.
“First, they will crack down on those working with election monitoring and minority rights. We will likely be among the first targets,” says Ana Tavadze, project leader and spokesperson for both Shame Movement and the LGBTQ movements Tbilisi Pride and Grlz Wave. Violence against LGBTQ people in Georgia has escalated over several years. “People cannot openly show that they are gay here, and a man wearing a dress or with painted nails will most likely be assaulted on the street,” says colleague Dachi.
In the past ten years, the total number of reported hate crimes in the country has increased by nearly a thousand percent. Whatever a police report in Georgia is worth. Dachi recalls how the Pride festival was stormed by far-right groups in 2021. Fifty journalists covering the event were injured, one of them so severely that he later died. The police stood by and watched. Afterwards, they were seen celebrating with the perpetrators.
“It was hard to watch how they did nothing,” he says. There are many testimonies indicating that the police violence and attacks by the far-right have the government’s blessing. Ana knows several people who have been stopped on the street and taken to the station, where they were beaten. “It’s sad, but as a Georgian citizen, you know that the police don’t serve society; they serve the regime,” she says.
Upstairs in the building where Shame Movement is located, the podcast studio has become a resting room. Ana is lying on the couch with a headache, wearing a black T-shirt with the text “neurodivergent and queer,” a short skirt, and platform sandals. In a while, she is heading out to be interviewed about the “Protection of Family Values and Minors” – a package of 18 Russian-inspired LGBTQ laws, which includes, among other things, a ban on events that “spread homosexual propaganda.” At the time of writing, we know that the law, condemned by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for restricting human rights as well as freedom of assembly and expression, was passed in the Georgian parliament on
September 17.
Decades of democracy and equality projects have made Georgia’s civil society thrive. Since the late 1990s, the U.S. has poured more than $6 billion into the country. Sweden’s total aid is approaching three billion SEK ($283 million). But some things have not been easy to change. Public attitudes toward homosexuality remain deeply conservative. The Orthodox Church bears a large responsibility for this, according to Ana. They have also been strong advocates for tougher LGBTQ laws. “The church demands that homosexuals either go underground or stay at home,” she says.
A bit of lipstick and a headache pill later, Ana is on her way to the Grlz Wave event “Talks and Beats.” Speed limit signs flash by, and after some bold overtakes, we stop in front of a wide metal gate. Inside are old stone blocks, the roof is gone, and
iron coils from the past hang on the walls. A large sign reads: “By being here, you agree that Russia is a terrorist state.” In the center, white sail cloths are stretched over the bar.
Here, with a drink in hand, you can listen to talks on social and political issues. The evening’s first theme is almost as taboo as homosexuality in Georgia. Ana translates: When a girl gets her period, it has to be referred to in other terms. For example, “The Red Army has arrived.” “That’s completely crazy. When we’re not in a political crisis, this is exactly the kind of thing Grlz Wave educates people about,” she says, lighting
another cigarette.
By midnight, the place is full of people. A girl sits in the lotus position on a stone wall. Ana walks around with a plastic box under her arm, handing out stickers. The atmosphere is warm, like in a Swedish folk park. She says she’s gotten used to
always being on guard. “The mob,” the far-right extremists, can show up anywhere. “Tbilisi Pride’s office has been attacked many times. Our phones are tapped, they know where we live, where we are,” she says. But no attacks are expected this evening. Small gatherings are still left in peace for now.
A slow movement. Many small steps in everyday life followed by an abrupt end. This is how Vano Matchavariani, a security policy expert, political commentator, and vice chairman of the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center (GSAC), describes
Russian hybrid warfare to a group of international students at Tbilisi State University.
“No one believes it will happen until it actually does. Ukraine didn’t expect war; they woke up to one,” he says. Right now, Russia has exactly the government it wants in Georgia, he believes. One that does the heavy lifting of slowing the country’s path to EU membership for them.
But there are more scenarios to watch out for. The protest demonstrations could turn into a “color revolution” that needs to be suppressed. If the opposition wins the election on October 26, it could be seen as a threat to Russian interests. “Russia can find any reason, at any time,” he says.
Ahead of the election, Europe and the U.S. need to sit down with key political players in Russia and Georgia and carefully discuss every conceivable scenario. “To really ensure that nothing is allowed to become a triggering factor,” he says. But who has that kind of leverage with Russia? “They don’t live on another planet. Diplomatic talks are always happening. Maybe not through public or official channels, but they are happening. And now, those conversations are more important than ever,” says Vano.
Saturday, October 26, is seen by many as a crossroads for Georgia’s future – democracy and EU membership or a Russian iron fist. At the end of June, just six months after the country had obtained the much anticipated candidate status, the EU froze talks on Georgia’s EU membership. “It was expected. Outwardly, the government was for the EU, but behind closed
doors, they were always doing Russia’s bidding,” says Ana.
In a speech on September 6, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised Georgia’s government for pushing through the agent law. During the UN summit on September 29, he offered to “mediate peace” between Georgia and the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “For me, it’s crystal clear that Bidzina Ivanishvili (former prime minister and founder of the ruling party Georgian Dream) wants to become an ally of the Kremlin and turn Georgia into a haven for authoritarian leaders – a new Belarus,” says Dachi. They don’t see it as unthinkable that the Russian military could be called to the streets of Tbilisi during the election. “Like in Ukraine in 2014, where the protests became so strong that the only thing the regime had left to resort to was brutal violence,” he says.
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Officially, the Russian army wouldn’t be present. But masked soldiers without insignia could easily handle the task of crushing the protests. “If the current government wins the election, they might arrest all of us,” says Ana. At the office, Giorgi Mjavanadze, one of the organization’s founders, is slouched in front of his laptop. He looks like he’s mindlessly browsing, but in reality, he’s racing against time. Two new organizational names have been registered. Right now, he’s opening a new bank account. To avoid massive fines or lawsuits during the election campaign, they plan to register Shame Movement as a “foreign agent” but continue their activities from another platform.
“No one knows what this government is capable of, so we’ve prepared a few different options,” he says. But in reality, neither names nor bank accounts are what’s occupying his mind right now. “The only thing I’m thinking about is how we’re going to get enough volunteers to be election observers. Because far worse things can happen than having an organization shut down,” says Giorgi. With few days left until the election, Shame Movement’s “Get Out the Vote” campaign is in full swing.
Now, everything is about getting the broad masses, especially the more than one million Georgians living abroad, to go to the polls – and mobilizing election observers across the country.
“There are just over 3,000 polling stations in the country. If we manage to cover a third of them, that would be amazing,” says Dachi. In Shame Movement’s online form, the box “I want to be an election observer” was checked more than 400 times in less than 48 hours. “I think people are feeling a lot of fear about how the country is developing right now, but there is also a lot of anger. We have many people contacting us now, saying they can’t just sit at home and do nothing,” says Dachi.
Around the large table at Shame Movement’s office, another meeting about recruiting election observers in rural areas has just concluded. “Every regime that starts to crack becomes brutal. Sometimes things have to get really bad before they get better. Emotionally, it’s hard to accept that this is where we are now, but I choose to see it as a positive sign. Because it means the beginning of the end for this regime,” says Ana. On the shelf, Putin with his eyes poked out still lies among piles of stickers with messages about freedom and democracy.
When the deadline for registering as an “organization that serves the interests of a foreign power” passed on September 2, barely 2 percent of Georgia’s over 26,000 non-governmental organizations had chosen to do so. In a conversation in mid-September, Ana mentioned that the original plan to register Shame Movement but continue operations under another name was met with so much criticism that they decided to rethink their approach. “We will neither register nor pay fines to this government. It’s a principled decision,” she says.
The “Russian Agent Law” in brief. A Russia-inspired law that was passed by the Georgian parliament on May 14, 2024, after massive street protests. Non-governmental organizations and media receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad must register as “organizations that serve the interests of a foreign power.”
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The fine for failing to register is 25,000 lari (approximately 8,500 EUR). Individuals are also included under this law. For example, anyone who refuses to disclose sensitive personal data from an organization can be fined 5,000 lari (1,700 EUR). According to OC Media, only 476 of the country’s approximately 26,000 organizations had registered by the deadline on September 2. The law has existed in Russia since 2012.
The EU Commission granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023. This came with nine recommendations, including combating disinformation, corruption, and ensuring that the judicial system and human rights were respected. After the “Russian Agent Law” was enacted in June 2024, the EU froze discussions on membership. On Tuesday, September 17, the legislative package “Protecting Family Values and Minors” – 18 heavily restrictive LGBTQ laws that infringe upon human rights as well as freedom of expression and assembly – was passed in parliament.
The “Law on Protecting Family Values and Minors” is a legislative package consisting of 18 laws targeting LGBTQ individuals. Prohibitions on events that “spread homosexual propaganda” and on producing and disseminating information about homosexuality and same-sex marriage in schools and media are proposed. The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has condemned the law.
According to OSCE statistics on hate crimes in Georgia, 13 cases were reported in 2012, and 1,802 cases in 2022. The parliamentary election in Georgia will take place on October 26. Georgian Dream has been the ruling party since 2012. The party was founded the same year by billionaire and businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili who also served as prime minister in 2013.) Since February 2024, the position is held by Irakli Kokbakhidze. Georgia is a parliamentary republic where the president is the head of state but does not have the power to legislate. The position is currently held by Salome Zourabichvili.