National Security Adviser to the US President Jake Sullivan warned Tbilisi against helping Russia circumvent Western sanctions.

He stated this at a meeting with Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.

“Mr. Sullivan stressed the need for Georgia not to turn into a country with which (Russia. -

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) you can bypass (sanctions. -

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),” the White House press service said.

In addition, according to the US presidential administration, the interlocutors discussed "the need to ensure that Russia continues to fully feel the economic costs of sanctions, export controls and other economic restrictions" that were introduced due to the special operation in Ukraine.

In a RT commentary, an expert on the South Caucasus, an expert at the Strategic Culture Foundation, Andrey Areshev, said that he believes that Sullivan's words once again confirm the fact of Washington's gross interference in Georgia's internal affairs.

“In fact, they don’t even hide it.

The American authorities are trying to move the Georgian government to a more anti-Russian course.

And for this purpose, all the levers of pressure that are available in this country, including non-governmental organizations, are used,” Areshev said.

As the expert noted, Sullivan is considered in the Biden administration to be one of the conductors of the course towards total international isolation and maximum sanctions pressure on Moscow.

In this regard, one of its tasks is to terminate Georgia's trade and economic contacts with Russia.

Senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS Vladimir Olenchenko, in a conversation with RT, noted that Sullivan's words can be taken as a demonstration of Washington's readiness to increase pressure on the Georgian leadership.

“Sullivan makes it clear that the United States is very unhappy with Georgia's attempts to maintain autonomy in domestic affairs.

Most likely, Washington will continue to stop them,” Olenchenko said.

"Revolutionary Process"

It should be noted that the negotiations between Sullivan and Zurabishvili took place against the backdrop of mass protests and riots that swept the center of Tbilisi after the country's parliament on March 7 voted in the first reading for the adoption of the draft law "On the transparency of foreign influence."

76 deputies voted “for” and 13 “against”.

Recall that at the end of February, two bills were submitted to the Georgian parliament for consideration: the so-called Georgian version - "On the transparency of foreign influence" and the "American" one - "On the registration of foreign agents."

The initiators of the first document were the ruling party "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" and deputies of the public movement "Power of the People", which make up the parliamentary majority.

The authors of the draft proposed to create a register in the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, which should include legal entities or media outlets, more than 20% of whose income is foreign funding.

According to the bill, they were required to register with the Ministry of Justice as agents of foreign influence and submit an annual financial declaration.

This option caused criticism among representatives of the opposition forces, and the deputies from the Forces of the People registered the second, so-called American version of the bill on foreign agents.

The authors of the second version argued that it was completely copied from the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which was adopted in the US back in 1938 and is still in effect.

This law requires foreign agents to disclose their ties with foreign countries, provide information about relevant activities and their funding.

However, Washington was not satisfied with both versions of the bill.

As US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan said on March 2, "The United States is against the law on foreign agents in Georgia, even if it is translated word for word from American law." 

As for the first option, a number of opposition organizations called the bill "pro-Russian" and opposed its adoption.

Among the dissatisfied was the head of the republic, Salome Zurabishvili.

Nevertheless, on March 7, by a majority of votes, the "Georgian" version was approved in the first reading, after which dissenters began to gather on the streets of Tbilisi.

The protests escalated into clashes with law enforcement officers.

Part of the crowd that took to the streets of Tbilisi tried to seize the parliament building, but could not break through the cordons of law enforcement officers.

On the same day, the President of Georgia addressed the protesters via video link from New York and promised to use the right of veto if the Parliament approved the innovations.

On March 10, in the second reading, the "Georgian" version of the bill was supported by only one deputy, 35 members of parliament voted against, 58 abstained. As a result, the parliamentary majority decided to withdraw the bill "On transparency of foreign influence."

In addition, shortly before the start of the second reading of the “Georgian” version of the bill, during a meeting of the bureau of the legislative body, Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili said that the initiators of the “American” version of the draft law on foreign agents applied to the Georgian Parliament with a request to withdraw their initiative, which did not reach plenary hearings.

Their request was granted.

According to representatives of the Georgian Dream, the bill on foreign agents was a mistake and "caused discord in society."

After refusing to consider the scandalous document, the ruling party hopes that the absence of a subject of dispute will deprive the street protests of the prospects for development, although they do not expect "an end to the radicalism of the opposition."

As Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, one of the leaders of the Georgian Dream, Gia Volsky, told journalists earlier, supporters of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who fought on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, arrived in the country from Ukraine.

According to the politician, they will try to influence the youth so as not to "remove this revolutionary process from the agenda, so that everything develops into a civil war, stampede, confrontation." 

"Anti-Russian elements"

Other initiators of the high-profile law on foreign agents - deputies from the "Power of the People" - did not make statements about its uselessness.

Moreover, the representative of this political force, Guram Macharashvili, admitted that the current unrest in Tbilisi is financed from abroad.

“Everyone saw that an agent of foreign influence in the country should be caught only so that the people could see who finances the forces that are now participating in the storming of the parliament, and see the real faces of those who finance such radical processes,” Macharashvili quotes the agency. Sputnik.

  • Technology of "color revolutions": who is behind the protests in Georgia

Moscow also announced an external factor of influence on the situation in Tbilisi.

Thus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with the Big Game program on Channel One, compared what is happening in the capital of Georgia with the Ukrainian Maidan.

“Very similar to the Kiev Maidan.

There is no doubt that the law on the registration of those non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding in the amount of 20% of just their budget was just an excuse to start, in general, an attempt to change power by force, ”Lavrov emphasized. .

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the events in Tbilisi are "orchestrated from outside" and "are of the same nature - this is the same desire to create an irritant on the borders of Russia."

In an interview with journalists, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov also said that they are trying to add “anti-Russian elements” to the protests.

“We see that someone’s hand, again, you can’t say “invisible hand” - it is visible.

We see where the president of Georgia is addressing his people from, she is not addressing Georgians and Georgian women from Georgia, she is addressing from America.

And someone's visible hand is diligently trying to add here ... anti-Russian elements, ”Peskov said.

According to Andrey Areshev, the law on foreign agents has become just an excuse for mass demonstrations.

According to the expert, the unrest in the center of Tbilisi was inspired by the United States authorities, who have extensive experience in organizing "color revolutions" in the post-Soviet space, including Georgia.

“The United States is trying to influence the leadership of Georgia by organizing mass street actions.

In this case, they got hooked on the bill on foreign agents.

Perhaps passions for it will subside, but the Americans themselves are unlikely to stop there.

A new reason for protests could be, for example, Saakashvili's state of health.

Americans know how to use the street for their political purposes - up to the forceful overthrow of power, ”the expert stated.

Areshev recalled that the United States warned the Georgian leadership about the consequences of the adoption of the law on foreign agents even before it was considered in the first reading.

Thus, on March 1, during a press briefing, US State Department spokesman Ned Price stated that the document allegedly does not correspond to the aspirations of the Georgian people.

At the same time, the American official stressed that any politician who supports the document could jeopardize "Georgia's Euro-Atlantic future."

  • Protesters in the center of Tbilisi

  • AP

  • © Shakh Aivazov

“Our point of view remains simple, and we have expressed it publicly, but also communicated it through private channels.

Anyone who votes for this bill will be responsible for the potential threat to Georgia's Euro-Atlantic future.

Such a law is not in line with the aspirations that the Georgian people have expressed for decades, the future they have envisioned for themselves, and the future that we, as partners, are determined to help achieve,” Price said.

Later, US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan appealed to members of the Georgian parliament to revoke and revise the law on foreign agents.

On March 6, in an interview with journalists, she stated that the law does not meet the interests of Georgia.

According to Areshev, the real reason for the unrest lies in the attempt of the United States to influence Tbilisi's restrained policy towards the Russian Federation.

Recall that after the start of the special operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the Georgian authorities did not begin to impose anti-Russian sanctions after the Western states and refused to open the so-called second front against Moscow.

“The United States now expects to play on the revanchist sentiment that emerged after the August 2008 conflict.

In the short term, they want to force Tbilisi to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation that are suicidal for the economy, and in the longer term, to create, if not a second front, then at least another hotbed of potential armed conflict in the Caucasus, ”Areshev explained.

In turn, Vladimir Olenchenko believes that the long-term goal of the United States is to turn Georgia into an aggressive militarized Russophobic state "according to the Ukrainian model."

“It is in the interests of the United States to create a situation in which Georgia will take a hostile position towards Russia and solidarize with Ukraine.

However, this turn of events does not meet the interests of the Georgian people at all.

I hope that the Georgian leadership will have enough will not to repeat the mistakes of Kyiv,” Olenchenko concluded.