“A dream turned into a nightmare” – this is how American congressman Steve Cohen evaluates the processes in Georgia.
The member of the House of Representatives of the United States, Democratic congressman from the state of Tennessee and member of the Helsinki Commission said in an interview with Voice of America that the law, which was adopted by the Parliament of Georgia, makes America and the European Union lose their desire to open their doors to Georgia.
Cohen, who was in Tbilisi on October 2, 2012 and says that he saw with his own eyes the joy of a large part of the population on the night of the election victory by Georgian Dream, today thinks that the ruling team disappointed the people and did not fulfill their promises.
The interview reads:
Congressmen, you urged Prime Minister Kobakhidze to reject the draft law on “foreign influences”, like your colleagues, saying that you would be forced to support the change of American policy towards Georgia. What should the government of Georgia expect at this stage of the partnership between the two countries?
I think the United States, like most of Europe, will be less willing to accept, to open the door to Georgia in the European Union, which I think Georgia wants and which is the place to which Georgia should aspire economically. The law they adopted is not liked by a large part of the Georgian people and is not welcomed. The number of people out on the streets is phenomenal.
This reminds me of the day when “Dream” won the elections [for the first time]. Then we saw a lot of people in the streets, on the main avenue. Of course, [after that] the “Dream” turned into a “nightmare” and was not what it should have been. Instead of the government becoming more open and transparent, with more rule of law, it has become more pro-Russian. The law they passed requires any group that receives 20% of its funding from abroad to declare itself an agent of the foreign government. It’s not really a high standard. There are groups and people who work for democracy, transparency, rule of law, but they fall into this group. This does not mean that they are somehow agents of foreign governments.
It is a pity that this law was passed. It is clear that Dream is not Dream, it is a bad dream. It has not fulfilled the promise made to the Georgian people years ago.
The Georgian government opposes comparing this law with Russian regulations, saying that its only purpose is transparency. They say that similar regulations apply in America and European countries. Since you are criticizing this law, what real damage do you think it can bring to Georgian independent media and civil organizations that receive part of their funding from the West? What will happen next?
I think the purpose of this is to suppress the voice of civil society members, those who are trying to advance issues related to democracy, to protect democracy and the rule of law, minority rights, freedom of speech… I don’t think that Georgian Dream wants that. I think they want to get closer to Russia.
When I came to Tbilisi, and they won the elections, I thought that the name of the party was perfectly chosen. The previous government had done a lot of bad things, there were many question marks towards them, and Georgian Dream had a good campaign along with a good name, but they could not meet this standard. Everything turned out to be a lie.
We often see that an authoritarian government, when it gets power, tries to use it against the opposition and blame it for what it often does itself.
They behave like [Hungarian leader Viktor] Orbán, they don’t want the influence of people in their countries who would question their authoritarian rule.
Senators and congressmen alike are talking about retaliatory measures to counter moves they see as distancing the country from a Western future. Do you think that financial or travel restrictions, sanctions are the way that the American legislators can choose to deal with a country with which you have a strategic partnership and whose population supports this partnership and Western integration?
Georgian people really think like this, they favor relations with the European Union, Europe and America, but we have not seen this from this government. We see a movement towards Stalinism.
I would like to see Georgia become a member of the European Union. I think this is what they want. But Russia wants them to become members of the Soviet Union again, Chapter Two. [16 years ago] they invaded South Ossetia and seized part of Georgia, which they still occupy, without any remorse. Russia is not a friend of Georgia, but Georgian Dream seems to think it is. And they took this law of theirs directly from Russia. This is a typical Russian law that they have there, and thus they resemble Russia.”
