Representative of McCain Institute: 'Georgian protests reach dead end'

Laura Thornton on protests in Georgia

According to Laura Thornton, the Director of Global Democracy Programs at the American McCain Institute, the last bastions of democracy in Georgia are the media and civil society, and public protests have currently reached a dead end. Thornton stated this in an interview with Voice of America.

She noted that funding for civil society or independent media in Georgia does not serve the interests of foreign governments.

“[The party] ‘Georgian Dream’ essentially claims that countries supporting Georgia’s civil society, including EU and US countries, are, to some extent, adversaries of Georgia, and that they are pursuing their own interests.

However, funding civil society or independent media in Georgia does not serve the interests of foreign governments, but rather supports democracy, effective governance, public health, education, and other similar areas,” said Laura Thornton.

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In her opinion, the Georgian government wants to adopt more laws that it could use against its opponents:

“It is absolutely clear that the ‘Georgian Dream’ is trying to expand the legal tools at its disposal to go against the demonstrators, civil society, and independent media.

The last bastions of [democracy] are now the media and civil society. This is a well-known scenario, and we have seen it, for example, in Hungary, not to mention Putin, who initiated several laws [in Russia] that are very similar to what is happening in Georgia.”

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Laura Thornton believes that the sanctions imposed by the US on the founder and de facto leader of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, have not had much effect so far.

Furthermore, the public protests, which have been ongoing for more than 100 days in Georgia, seem to have reached a dead end. Thornton believes that perhaps the protesters should redirect their demands to more specific issues (such as economic ones) and also try other forms of pressure on the authorities, such as mass strikes:

“However, organizing a truly large-scale strike is very difficult. Time will tell whether the protests in Georgia will evolve into a more extensive public event and whether they will be able to exert enough pressure on the regime. It is hard to predict at this point.”

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