will rational humility win, or will a radical cut come?

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobachidze will not go to America. “The US invitation does not correspond to the spirit of partnership,” reads an unusually blunt statement from the Georgian Foreign Ministry.

Georgians are said to have been offended by the wording, which for connoisseurs of the Caucasian mentality really does not come into consideration as an invitation to visit: if they wanted to come to the US for a visit, the Georgian government and parliament should have suspended the discussion of the law on the transparency of foreign influence, known as the law on foreign agents.

In other words, the law that caused a similar indignation of citizens in Georgia as in 2014 in Ukraine, the suspension of the process of the country’s entry into the EU by the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Discussion of the controversial law, which bears a striking resemblance to Russia’s on foreign agents, has brought much passion to Georgia’s parliament and the streets of Tbilisi. There was also a fight between the deputies. Photo: Parliament of Georgia via Reuters

Even Tbilisi today is full of protesters, mostly young and speaking more English than Russian, also with EU flags, but on the other side of the barricade there are also police officers with water cannons and pungent gas intended to disperse the disobedient.

So far, there are no shots fired, no houses on fire, and not too many calls to overthrow the government. Students dance Georgian folk dances and sing patriotic songs, holding above their heads slogans such as “Free Georgia”, “Not to Russian law” or “Russians go home!”

It seems that this is mainly a law, the content of which is about as important to contemporary Georgia as the regulations on the breeding of domestic animals. Nevertheless, the government and the Georgian Dream party in charge of the parliament want to accept him at all costs. Despite the really massive protests that Georgia does not remember for a long time, and despite the upcoming parliamentary elections, in which this fall, a part of young voters disgusted by the behavior of the Georgian Dream will probably not go to the polls, or will vote for someone else.

Back in March, however, sociologists predicted a victory for the ruling party – about 31 percent of voters would support the Georgian Dream. From this point of view, many Georgian political scientists do not see any sense in the pressure of the government and the parliament to adopt a law that does not fully correspond to its meaning. Except for the Russian trail.

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