Georgia, which sits at the intersection of Europe and Asia, was once considered a bastion of democracy in the region, but lately it has been forced down a pro-Russia authoritarian path. In October 2024, the ruling Georgian Dream party was officially declared the winner of that month’s parliamentary elections amid credible reports of vote-rigging and other electoral irregularities. President Salome Zourabichvili—who has refused to step down—said the results made a “mockery of democracy.” The European Parliament, too, refused to recognize the election results while condemning the elections “for being neither free nor fair, representing yet another manifestation of the continued democratic backsliding of the country … for which the ruling Georgian Dream party is fully responsible.” In February, the European Parliament adopted a resolution refusing to recognize the Georgian Dream regime.
For their part, the citizens of Georgia took to the streets. Still more widespread protests were triggered by the Georgian Dream government’s declaration last November that it had suspended talks on Georgia joining the European Union. The intense public outcry was no surprise. In a 2023 survey, nearly 80 percent of Georgians supported joining the EU. The Georgian Constitution expressly states that the government “shall take all measures … to ensure the full integration of Georgia” into the EU and NATO.
Georgia, which sits at the intersection of Europe and Asia, was once considered a bastion of democracy in the region, but lately it has been forced down a pro-Russia authoritarian path. In October 2024, the ruling Georgian Dream party was officially declared the winner of that month’s parliamentary elections amid credible reports of vote-rigging and other electoral irregularities. President Salome Zourabichvili—who has refused to step down—said the results made a “mockery of democracy.” The European Parliament, too, refused to recognize the election results while condemning the elections “for being neither free nor fair, representing yet another manifestation of the continued democratic backsliding of the country … for which the ruling Georgian Dream party is fully responsible.” In February, the European Parliament adopted a resolution refusing to recognize the Georgian Dream regime.
For their part, the citizens of Georgia took to the streets. Still more widespread protests were triggered by the Georgian Dream government’s declaration last November that it had suspended talks on Georgia joining the European Union. The intense public outcry was no surprise. In a 2023 survey, nearly 80 percent of Georgians supported joining the EU. The Georgian Constitution expressly states that the government “shall take all measures … to ensure the full integration of Georgia” into the EU and NATO.
More recently, on March 22, Georgian citizens marched in the capital of Tbilisi carrying Georgian and American flags in support of a bipartisan U.S. bill: the Mobilizing and Enhancing Georgia’s Options for Building Accountability, Resilience, and Independence (MEGOBARI) Act, which proposes sanctions against Georgian Dream officials. Among those leading the charge against Georgian Dream are Republican members of Congress. On March 10, Sen. Jim Risch, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reintroduced the MEGOBARI Act to support “the people of Georgia as their government continues its violent assaults on peaceful protestors and reaffirms U.S. support for Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration.” A congressional hearing on that act is slated for March 27. In January, Rep. Joe Wilson introduced the Georgian Nightmare Non-Recognition Act to prohibit the United States from recognizing the Georgian Dream regime.
The Trump administration’s position on Georgia is not yet fully apparent, although it is notable that Zourabichvili represented the Georgian people at President Donald Trump’s inauguration and that U.S. Ambassador Robin Dunnigan met with her in March. But there are strong incentives for the United States to restore its strategic partnership with Georgia. It could benefit U.S. business interests while also countering China’s influence in the region. And with few domestic avenues left for resisting authoritarian rule, continuing U.S. support will be crucial for sustaining Georgian citizens’ defense of their democracy.
Determined to crush popular efforts to fight for democracy, Georgian Dream first responded with brutal police violence. When the protests still persisted, the party rushed through legislation to stifle dissent. Amendments included imposing excessive administrative detention up to 60 days as well as disproportionate administrative fines on protesters; the fine for blocking a road during a rally, for example, is 5,000 Georgian lari (about $1,800)—almost 20 times the government-estimated monthly subsistence minimum needed for a working-age male to purchase enough calories in Georgia.
Now, Georgian Dream is attempting to clothe its latest efforts to crush the opposition in a U.S. law. In February, the party introduced a new “foreign agent” bill, which imported verbatim the United States’ Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), an overly broad and vaguely worded statute enacted in 1938 to counter Nazi propaganda. FARA requires an “agent of a foreign principal” to register with the U.S. Justice Department for a broad range of activities. As Nick Robinson of the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL) explains, “foreign principal” does not just include foreign governments or political parties but also foreign companies, nonprofits, individuals or even Americans domiciled abroad. An “agent” can be someone merely acting at that principal’s “request” or someone whom the principal funds in “major part.” Activities covered under FARA include distributing anything of value, attempting to influence any section of the U.S. public on a domestic or foreign-policy issue, or disseminating factual information about a foreign country, company, or organization. Registration is burdensome and stigmatizing, and failure to register triggers a risk of hefty fines and imprisonment for up to five years.
Leading U.S. civil society organizations have warned that “FARA’s overbreadth and vagueness can undermine and chill First Amendment rights to speech and association and the statute has a history of being used to target undesirable expressive conduct.”
Overly broad though it is, FARA is limited by the U.S. Constitution and independent federal courts and is also shaped by the Justice Department’s enforcement decisions. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, herself a former foreign lobbyist, recently clarified that FARA prosecutions “shall be limited to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.” ICNL notes the limited application of the U.S. legislation—namely that “[m]any US non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media organizations receive foreign grants and other support, but the US has not required them to register as foreign agents under FARA.” Moreover, as of 2023, nonprofits were only a small number—about 5 percent—of those registered under FARA.
Without such limits, importing FARA wholesale into a wholly different context such as that in Georgia would allow Georgian Dream to eviscerate civil society and independent media organizations. It would also have absurd consequences. For example, under the new law, any Georgian government officials who respond to a request for information about Georgian policy (including in relation to the foreign agent law) from a foreigner (for example, a foreign media outlet, ambassador, or investor) would have to register as foreign agents because they would qualify as “political consultants” under the law. Despite these serious flaws, the law is expected to be adopted on April 4 and come into force 60 days thereafter, in June.
The impacts on Georgian NGOs are expected to be especially severe. Those receiving foreign funding are considering shutting down altogether because failure to register under the law could result in imprisonment. Compounding matters, in mid-March, in what can only be interpreted as an effort to kill the protests, Georgian Dream froze the bank accounts of several NGOs helping arbitrarily detained protesters pay for excessive fines and legal representation.
Little wonder then that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights issued an urgent opinion this month raising serious concerns about the Georgian government’s compliance with international human rights standards, including those relating to the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly.
The United States should call on Georgian Dream to immediately cease its lawless crackdown on protesters, withdraw the proposed FARA bill, and repeal other regressive laws imposed on civil society organizations and media outlets. Congress should quickly pass the MEGOBARI Act and impose sanctions on Georgian Dream officials. And it should call for free and fair elections monitored by international election observers to be set for as soon as possible while making it clear that attempts to undermine electoral integrity will be punished. The forthcoming congressional hearing on the act should communicate strong bipartisan support for these actions.
Georgia’s location in the “middle corridor” connecting Europe to Asia makes it a crucial trade, energy, and transportation hub. China’s influence in the country is also rapidly expanding. In 2020, Georgian Dream canceled an agreement by an international consortium including U.S. companies to build a crucial deep-sea port on the Black Sea only to later award the contract to a Chinese company.
The United States has so far shown an understanding of these stakes. It responded to the declaration withdrawing from EU accession talks by suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia and in December 2024 imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream’s founder and honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, for “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation.” In a letter to then-Secretary of State-nominee Marco Rubio, Rep. Wilson referred to the sanctions on Ivanishvili as a “significant step forward,” striking “at the heart of the de facto Georgian government’s misleading narrative that its alignment with pro-Chinese, Iranian, and Russian interests would find acceptance under President-elect Trump’s leadership, or under any U.S. administration.”
This month, Wilson applauded Georgian citizens for their defense of democracy, saying: “For over 105 consecutive days, the extraordinary people of Georgia have taken to the streets to demand free and fair elections, rejecting the mafia coronation of the [Chinese Communist Party] sellout regime. Their tenacious love and defense of Georgia and its future will not be in vain.”
Now it is time to take urgent further action. By leveraging its power on Georgian Dream to stop targeting protesters, withdraw the proposed FARA bill, and repeal repressive laws, the United States can act swiftly to help Georgian citizens take back their democracy.
The post How the U.S. Can Fight for Georgia’s Democracy appeared first on Foreign Policy.
