I apologize for the vagueness of this question, but I have too much on my plate these days to sort it out.

Background: I try to monitor the Intel_Slava Telegram channel for news on Ukraine, but they often post items on political unrest elsewhere in the world. Lately, they have had occasional posts about a kind of internal political unrest happening in central Asian nations, like Armenia (I think) and maybe Azerbaijan. (I am almost certainly getting this awry, so don't shoot me yet.)

The nature of the unrest is a controversy over laws that have recently been passed by the legislatures of these countries which require Non-Governmental Organizations to register as "foreign agents" if their funding is (say) 30% or greater from foreign sources. I read this and shrug. So what? What is the controversy? Seems entirely reasonable. What's the problem? The NGO could still do legitimate business, right?

But there is vehement outrage over this, which seems to be boiling on the edge of civil war. And outside nations seem to be taking this as a literal hostile act, and there are murmurings of inciting political coups to overturn the governments. This reaction seems far beyond a normal political disagreement, and I don't understand it. Obviously, this would be an obstacle to the corrupt NGOs, but it should be a minor obstacle. Why is it a casus belli? What is the connection to the larger picture?

It is that last question that I think bears research. The western press seems to be ignoring these developments, which is usually an indicator that they are selecting silence deliberately to keep it out of the light. So, if anyone can elucidate what is really going on, I would be all eyes and ears. Thank you.