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00:00A fifth night of clashes between police and protesters in Georgia's capital, the Prime
00:04Minister vowing no negotiations with the crowds or the opposition, who are demonstrating against
00:10the ruling party's decision to suspend EU accession talks.
00:14Opposition politicians and the country's pro-EU president are calling for last October's parliamentary
00:19elections to be thrown out.
00:21The Georgian Dream Party has ruled Georgia for more than a decade, recently passing laws
00:26targeting the LGBTQ community and independent media.
00:30It's seen as turning Georgia more towards Russia and away from the West.
00:33Selina Sykes tells us more.
00:38For a fifth night in a row, protesters with EU and Georgian flags gather outside Parliament
00:44in the Georgian capital to demonstrate against the government's decision to postpone talks
00:49on European Union accession.
00:51They accuse the ruling party of aiming to drag Georgia back into Russia's sphere of
00:56influence, even though an overwhelming majority of the population backs joining the 27-country
01:02bloc.
01:03We do deserve to be part of the EU and we will never give up until we get whatever we
01:11want.
01:12Democracy, freedom of speech, social welfare and everything which is related to the European
01:17community is important.
01:20Protesters were once again met by riot police and water cannons on Monday night.
01:24Many Georgians have been shocked by the level of violence directed at demonstrators as well
01:29as journalists.
01:30The country's human rights ombudsman said it mounted to brutality.
01:35Georgia's prime minister, though, blames opposition parties for fuelling what he said were lies
01:39about his government's intentions.
01:41He insists that his Georgian Dream Party is still committed to European integration, despite
01:47not putting the issue on the agenda until the end of 2028.
01:52I had a discussion about European integration with diplomats today at the Ministry of Foreign
01:56Affairs and they were instructed to put maximum efforts into the EU integration process.
02:03An increasing number of public officials don't appear to believe that's the case.
02:07Several top diplomats have resigned, including the ambassador to the US, as well as hundreds
02:12of civil servants.
02:14The government is also locked in a stand-off with its own pro-opposition and pro-EU president,
02:20who has spoken out against what she calls a crackdown on free speech, and has called
02:25for a new vote after parliamentary elections last month, which the opposition has denounced
02:30as rigged.
02:31To take a closer look at the situation, we can speak now to Deputy Dean at the University
02:36of Essex, Natasha Lindstadt.
02:38Thanks so much for joining us and for your time.
02:40I want to start by asking you, do you see the current situation in Georgia?
02:44Is it ultimately a battle between the pro-EU and the pro-Russian sides in the country?
02:51Definitely.
02:52I think this is one of the biggest issues in Georgian politics and you have a variety
02:57of polls that show somewhere between 80 to almost 90 percent of Georgians either partially
03:04support joining the EU or fully support joining the EU.
03:07They believe that moving westward, leaning towards Europe, is going to resolve a lot
03:13of their economic problems that they face.
03:15They face high levels of unemployment and growing levels of poverty, and they are very
03:21frightened of growing Russian influence and believe that the Georgia Dream Party's closeness
03:28or willingness to move closer to Russia poses a threat to them.
03:33In similar polls, you see almost 80 percent of Georgians also oppose Russians having visa-free
03:39travel to Georgia, and they're concerned that there's an influx of not only Russians just
03:46living in Georgia, buying houses, taking over businesses and so forth, but that the ruling
03:54Georgia Dream Party has become a quasi-Russian state.
03:59We are hearing from Georgia's pro-EU president.
04:02She wants now the elections of last October to be annulsing that there was interference,
04:07of course, in those elections.
04:08We saw that pro-Russian Georgian Dream Party win control of the government yet again.
04:15Is there reason, though, to believe that there was interference in those elections?
04:18There was definitely interference.
04:20Russia has been known to interfere in many different countries' elections, but particularly
04:25in its own sphere of influence, it believes that Georgia should be controlled by it.
04:31It interferes in various ways through all kinds of pro-Russian propaganda, but also
04:36trying to sow divisions, casting doubt about the European Union, and supporting an anti-LGBTQ
04:45agenda claiming that Western influence is leading to the destruction of Georgian values.
04:51There's also loads of interference by intimidating voters, by harassing the opposition, harassing
04:58the critical media.
05:00This makes it very difficult for the elections to take place on a fair playing field.
05:05A lot of people are looking at Georgia, and it's reminding them of the situation that
05:10took place in Ukraine, and then, of course, Georgian Dream are saying there's no Maidan
05:13in Georgia.
05:14Do you see similarities?
05:15There are huge similarities, and I think this is why so many Georgians are worried.
05:20There are Russian soldiers that are about 30 miles away from Tbilisi.
05:26If you go to Tbilisi, you can see that there's all kinds of pro-Ukrainian graffiti everywhere,
05:33that they are very much, at least the people, are very much aligned with the Ukrainians,
05:39and feel for them, and are concerned that Russia could invade again.
05:43Russia did invade Georgia in 2008, and so they're worried that this could happen again.
05:49Now, what the Georgia Dream leadership claims is that they are preventing a Russian invasion
05:55and trying to make nice with Russia by not moving too close to the West.
05:59But in my opinion, I think there are more coinciding interests where the Georgia Dream
06:05Party and its sort of shadow leader, Ivanishvili, are more in step with what Russia wants, and
06:15he probably has business interests in Russia that he doesn't want to interrupt.
06:21Of course, the current protests they broke out when the Georgia Dream Party decided to
06:25suspend talks with the EU aimed at accession talks for the country.
06:32Accession talks with the EU, they take a very long time in general.
06:36Is there something maybe Brussels should be doing to try and counterbalance the impact
06:41you're saying Russia has in the country?
06:45Well, they've been trying to through the support of NGOs, and NGOs in Georgia are incredibly
06:52important to providing clear information, to supporting civil society, and to supporting
06:59democracy there.
07:01But with that foreign agent law that was passed, that was obviously modeled after these notorious
07:07Russian foreign agent laws, it makes it impossible for these NGOs to operate because they're
07:11almost completely dependent on foreign funding.
07:16When I had gone to Georgia and interviewed people that were working at NGOs, they were
07:20really reliant on funds that come from the West, and were feeling like they actually
07:26needed more funds, not less.
07:27So this makes it really, really difficult.
07:29Now, I know that the European Parliament recently censured the Georgia Dream Party by saying
07:36that these elections were not free and fair, and the Georgia Dream Party responded, claiming
07:41that they were being blackmailed by the European Union.
07:44So it's very difficult to operate to support Georgia at this point, now that the foreign
07:50agent law has been passed, unless the European Union wants to take harsher steps.
07:55At this point, what they've done is censure the Georgia Dream Party, claim that there's
08:00democratic backsliding taking place, and have denounced and condemned the repression used
08:05on the protesters.
08:06And just before we let you go, can you give us a better understanding of the recent laws
08:10that the Georgia Dream Party passed?
08:13We are hearing that they're taking a much harder stance against civil society.
08:18So these laws, these foreign agent laws, are really a sign of autocratization, that a country
08:24has basically become authoritarian.
08:25They are made in the name of transparency, but it basically states that if you have any
08:31funding coming from a foreign source, that you have to declare yourself a foreign agent,
08:36and then you have to submit yourself to a lot of surveillance, and fill in all kinds
08:43of forms.
08:44And it's very, very difficult to adhere to all of this, and it makes it almost impossible
08:50for these NGOs to actually operate.
08:51Okay, we'll have to leave it there, but thank you so much for your time and bringing us
08:55your insight into the situation.
08:57Natasha Linstad, Deputy Dean at University of Essex.