The autocracy that is spreading around the world and becoming stronger.
Scholars call this “authoritarian-learning,” which is a method by which autocratic rulers study one another and adjust tactics according to what works and when faced with resistance.
Georgia. Georgian Dream, the ruling party in Georgia, has led this Caucasus country from democracy to autocracy by taking lessons from Russia. It adopted in particular a law on “foreign agents” (also known as foreign agent legislation) that was straight out of Vladimir Putin’s playbook.
The legislation was sold to the public to increase transparency. However, it has been used to arrest Georgian dissidents and persecute the opposition.
Researchers who study the effects and structure of autocratic governments look at Georgia’s foreign agent laws as an example that shows how the politicians not only learn the Russian authoritarian tactics but also improve on them within a short timeframe.
From Europe to Russia:
The current ruling party in Georgia came to power when former President Mikheil Sakaashvili implemented a series of major reforms during the 2000s. Saakashvili inherited Georgia, which was tethered with Russia and seen as corrupt. He went to jail in 2021 on highly disputable charges.
Saakashvili’s reformist politicians led the country to a pro Western path. After the invasion by Russia in Georgia in 2008 a coalition of socially conservative politicians under the name Georgian Dream was elected to the parliament in 2012.
The fortune of Bidzina, who was a Russian national until 2011, boosted Georgian Dream. After a decade, the party took advantage of public fatigue from Saakashvili’s needed but intensive reforms. This new coalition combines a commitment to continue the pro-Western, pro-Western reforms with a traditional and conservative social approach.
The appeal to Georgian traditional values gained support from rural communities, and the coalition was able to achieve an absolute majority at Parliament in 2016. Georgian Dream, which has been pro-Russian since then, now accuses a global war party of controlling the West. The increasing attacks against the European Union in particular are part of an overall strategy that aims to return Georgia into Russia’s orbit.
Georgian Dream’s rise to power mirrors that of Putin. Putin’s “foreign agent” law was signed in 2012. It initially targeted foreign-funded NGOs that were accused of engaging in political activities.
This law was compared to the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (or FARA) in the United States and was justified as a way to improve transparency regarding foreign interference in Russia’s domestic affairs.
The Russian version of FARA does not require establishing any connection between the foreign funding of a political party and its political activities. Nor is there a definition for political activity.
It was this vagueness that allowed a variety of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) deemed unwelcome by the Kremlin, to be labeled “foreign agent”. The result of these actions were the financial, administrative and criminal burdens placed on the NGO which led to its liquidation or exit from the country.
This law has suppressed the ability of Russian civil society to speak out and independently address problems that affect its citizens.
Yearlong slide into autocracy
Georgian Dream overcame a presidential veto on May 28th, 2024 to pass a law very similar. The law forced all NGOs that received more than 20 percent of their funding abroad to register at the Ministry of Justice, as they were “serving foreign interests.”
The law was used against “LGBT propaganda” as described by the ruling party.
This law is part of a larger political context in which Georgians are overwhelmingly pro-EU, but the ruling party restricts freedom of press and prosecutes political opponents.
On April 30th, 2024, protestors take part in an anti-European rally at Warsaw in Poland.
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto by Getty Images
Improve on Russian Authoritarians
The Russian law on foreign agents was able to spread because of three factors: the imbalance in power between the Russian Government and the NGOs; the limited response by the international authorities and the delayed attention from the media.
Civil society in Russia was divided at the time of the passing of the law. Those who foresaw its dangers took collective action against it while others chose not to.
In the end, however, this law was expanded to include a wider range of foreign organizations. Putin’s 2015 law designated foreign groups as “undesirable”, citing national security concerns. In 2017, an amended law expanded its targets from NGOs, to include mass media. And at the end 2019, the law permitted the designation of unregistered associations, or individuals, as agents of foreign governments. In July 2022 the Russian authorities will no longer be able to use the foreign funding criteria to determine who is a foreign agent.
The Russian experience shows the early stages of an authoritarian regime, where state power squelches independent power sources, while political groups and the citizens rally behind the government, or remain silent. After the demonstrations surrounding the 2012 presidential elections that returned Putin to power for a third term, the Russian government passed the foreign agent laws.
After massive protests forced the government to back down in its initial attempt at passing a law on foreign agents, they rushed it through just before elections.
Days before the 2024 elections, the law was used to raid anti-opposition NGOs. Irakli Kobakhidze, the Prime Minister, said that if Georgian Dream won the election, they would seek to ban the pro-Western opponents, calling them criminal political forces.
Georgian Dream, in the aftermath of the suspension of USAID aid by President Donald Trump, has expanded its war against civil society. It is echoing the far-right conspiracies of Russian, Chinese, and American conspiracy theorists that foreign-funded NGO’s were fomenting a revolution. Georgian Dream passed new laws criminalizing protests and gatherings to combat these phantoms.
Repression as a springboard
Georgian Dream has accelerated the timeline for using this law. It took Russia 10 years to use it effectively to suppress any opposition.
The EU may have suspended its direct assistance to Georgian officials and restricted visa-free travel as a consequence of this law. However, Trump’s shift toward pro-Russian policy has made it harder for the West to reach a consensus on how best the Georgian Government can be reformed from their authoritarian tendencies.
Georgia, by following the Russian playbook and utilizing rule of law against democracy, shows how both authoritarians learn from one another.
