On May 24, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris wrote a letter on behalf of President Joe Biden and herself, which puts the United States on the path of attempting to destabilize the Georgian government of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, among its wave of color revolutions. Harris indicates that the political forces around Kobakhidze could keep NATO from accepting Georgia’s membership into NATO and/or the EU.
Harris is joined in this effort by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O’Brien, and by Senators who have introduced the punitive and dangerous “Georgian People’s Act,” which involves no one from the nation of Georgia. All of these activities were coordinated over May 23-25.
Harris addressed her letter to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, beginning, “President Biden and I have been following events in Georgia with great concern.” She cited Georgia’s Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence (which she erroneously called the “foreign agents bill,” which requires that any Georgian NGO or media that receives a minimum of 20% of its funding from foreign sources must register as carrying out the interests of a foreign power. Zourabichvili had vetoed that legislation on May 18, despite its having passed by an overwhelming majority. Harris wrote that she applauds Zourabichvili’s actions, including vetoing of that “anti-democratic measure,” as well as her “commitment to protect civil society as it comes under threat in Georgia.” (Ironically, despite the effort to refer to the Transparency law as “Russian,” it was modeled on the 1938 U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act.) Harris asserted that “the United States is the largest supplier of foreign assistance to Georgia to help build critical infrastructure, strengthen democratic institutions, and modernize your military forces,” with the obvious threat that the U.S. will cut off these funds if Georgia doesn’t fall into line with U.S. policy. She avers, with zilch for proof: “The Georgian people have been clear that they want a future in the European Union and NATO.”
Kobakhidze explicitly backs NATO membership for Georgia, but the issue is complicated by Russia’s 2008 intervention to back the independence of Abkhazia and Ossetia from the depredations of then President Mikheil Sakaashvili.
