Follow-up to Part 1 of Regime Change and Colour Revolutions plus Open Thread #16
note and update
Note: I am all over the place for the next few days, but I will get the next entry out for the new series on regime change and colour revolutions as soon as possible.
Since publishing the first entry only one week ago today, the Republic of Georgia is being rocked by demonstrations protesting a new bill which would create a new law whereby any media or foundation receiving more than 20% of its funding from foreign sources must register as an agent of foreign influence.
This sounds very reasonable, but both the USA and the EU are backing the protesters and want to see this bill rejected. Take a look at who is backing the protesters:
The current government in Georgia is not pro-Russian. In fact, it is pro-EU and pro-Western. The issue is that it is not sufficiently anti-Russian to the point where it will open up a second front against the Russians in South Ossetia, the breakaway region of their country.
Here’s an article from Latvian media published earlier today: The Baltic States have “serious questions” about democracy in Georgia:
The Foreign Ministers of Latvia, Estonia an Lithuania on March 8 issued a brief statement on events in Georgia, where mass demonstrations have taken place against what demonstrators say are repressive new laws, and police and demonstrators have clashed.
"The first reading of the law on foreign agents passed by the Georgian parliament raises serious questions about the prospects of democracy in Georgia. We call on the Parliament of Georgia to responsibly assess the real interests of the country and refrain from decisions that may undermine aspirations of Georgia’s people to live in a democratic country which is advancing towards the EU and NATO," said Edgars Rinkēvičs (Latvia), Urmas Reinsalu (Estonia) and Gabrielius Landsbergis (Lithuania).
The Ministers added: "We call on the Government of Georgia to respect the right of people to a peaceful protest."
We, Foreign Ministers of 🇱🇻🇪🇪🇱🇹, are seriously concerned about the adoption of so called Foreign Agents Law in the 1st reading. If Georgia wants to progress towards the EU and NATO, it shall uphold to the principles of democracy, rule of law and human rights
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) March 8, 2023
The local darling of the neo-conservative set, Mikhail Saakashvili, is currently rotting away in a Georgian prison after being arrested for abuse of power upon illegally entering Georgia. This is the former Georgian President who was appointed Governor of Odessa under Ukrainian President Poroshenko. In order to serve in this capacity, he had to take out Ukrainian citizenship, which meant that his Georgian citizenship was forfeited, as that country does not allow dual citizenship. Poroshenko went on to repeal his Ukrainian citizenship after Saakashvili grew critical of him. Saakashvili was the idiot who launched the disastrous attempt to try and re-integrate South Ossetia into Georgia by force in 2008, only to get rocked by the Russians.
The current President has stated that she will never pardon him, but is critical of the bill regarding foreign funding of media and organizations.
The USA had a four-year long meltdown over Russians purchasing some $50,000 USD in Facebook ads during the 2016 Presidential Election campaign. This puts these demos into context.
As we continue through the series, you will see just how important foreign-funded NGOs/media are to US foreign policy interests and overall strategy. No wonder they are flipping out.
Feel free to use this entry as an open thread as well, as we haven’t had one in a while. Take this opportunity to make requests of this Substack, offer up recommendations, criticisms, and so on.
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I highly recommend András Schiffer's "Action for Democracy Export" article about foreign interference in the Hungarian elections.
He's a former Green/Liberal politician, and today he's part of the independent opposition.
He authorized me to translate his article to English, which blew up the Hungarian internet and later the public consciousness:
https://www.magyar.blog/i/74902116/andras-schiffer-action-for-democracy-export
It's very Think Thank / NGO heavy, tried to highlight it for readability.
I have to add: since the publishing of his original article, no claims in his research have been challenged by the opposition.