Georgia parliament approves ‘foreign agent’ bill amid ongoing protests
Georgia’s parliament has voted to adopt a “foreign agents” law that opponents condemn as a Kremlin-inspired step towards repressing civil society.
A majority of MPs backed the bill at a vote on Tuesday despite the rolling protests that have brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi.
In recent days, police have been accused of beating protesters who have massed outside parliament, and on Tuesday the violence spread to the chamber.
One MP from the governing Georgian Dream party had to be held back by security guards as he lurched at the leader of the main opposition, Levan Khabeishvili.
Under the legislation, media or civil society groups in Georgia that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad will be required to register as “organisations serving the interests of a foreign power”.
The US state department has called the bill “Kremlin-inspired” as it has echoes of legislation introduced into the Russian statute books in 2012 by Vladimir Putin that critics say has been used to silence critics.
Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, earlier met the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Jim O’Brien, in Tbilisi to discuss Washington’s concerns.
According to the prime minister’s office, Kobakhidze had “explained to Jim O’Brien the need to adopt the law ‘On Transparency of Foreign Influence’” and reiterated the “readiness of the leadership team to carefully consider all legal comments of international partners within the framework of the veto procedure”.
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The president of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, has said she would veto the law, but the governing party has sufficient numbers in the parliament to overrule her. The Georgian government has argued that the legislation is merely about transparency.