Georgia’s parliamentary speaker has signed a bill into law on “foreign agents” that has caused a political crisis in the South Caucasus country and drawn sharp criticism from its Western allies.
The dispute around the law is a test of whether Georgia, for three decades among the more pro-Western of the Soviet Union’s successor states, will maintain its Western orientation or move closer to Russia.
Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili signed the bill into law after government lawmakers voted last week to overcome a veto by President Salome Zourabichvili, who had criticized it, Georgian media reported on Monday.
The legislation requires organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as “agents of foreign influence” and introduces fines for violations as well as onerous disclosure requirements.
For more than a month, opponents of the bill have mounted some of the largest protests in Georgia since independence from Moscow in 1991, as the Soviet Union crumbled.
A group of Georgian NGOs has said that they will challenge the legislation in the constitutional court and are preparing a submission to the European Court of Human Rights, Georgian media reported last week.
The United States, the European Union, and Britain have criticized the bill. Georgian opposition groups call it “the Russian law,” saying it is modeled on Russian legislation used to target opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
Russia is unpopular among many Georgians for its support of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with public opinion broadly supportive of membership in the EU and NATO. Russia defeated Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.
Washington has threatened to sanction Georgian officials who voted for the bill. The Georgian government has accused Western countries of blackmail and said that the law is necessary to prevent them from dragging Georgia into another war with Russia.
Russia denies any role in backing the bill, which it has defended against Western criticism.
Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili signed the bill into law after government lawmakers voted last week to overcome a veto by President Salome Zourabichvili, who had criticized it, Georgian media reported on Monday.
The legislation requires organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as “agents of foreign influence” and introduces fines for violations as well as onerous disclosure requirements.
For more than a month, opponents of the bill have mounted some of the largest protests in Georgia since independence from Moscow in 1991, as the Soviet Union crumbled.
A group of Georgian NGOs has said that they will challenge the legislation in the constitutional court and are preparing a submission to the European Court of Human Rights, Georgian media reported last week.
The United States, the European Union, and Britain have criticized the bill. Georgian opposition groups call it “the Russian law,” saying it is modeled on Russian legislation used to target opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
Russia is unpopular among many Georgians for its support of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with public opinion broadly supportive of membership in the EU and NATO. Russia defeated Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.
Washington has threatened to sanction Georgian officials who voted for the bill. The Georgian government has accused Western countries of blackmail and said that the law is necessary to prevent them from dragging Georgia into another war with Russia.
Russia denies any role in backing the bill, which it has defended against Western criticism.
Source: Reuters
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