Honorary Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili supports the reintroduction of the Russian law in Parliament. This was confirmed by Mamuka Mdinaradze, the party's executive secretary and leader of the parliamentary majority.
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Mdinaradze stated that the honorary chairman of the party did not participate in the majority session held at the Georgian Dream office yesterday evening, although consultations were held with him.
"He is our associate in this matter. This has been agreed upon by the Political Council. By the way, discussions about this began the day before yesterday at the traditional majority session and continued yesterday due to other issues at the session, including matters related to preventing LGBT propaganda, vetting, and court issues. Yesterday, we made the decision that was reflected in our statement. All members of the Political Council, including the Honorable Chairman, are fully aware of the proceedings and share the sentiment of this announcement. Word for word, we all hold the same opinion," said Mdinaradze.
The parliamentary majority intends to adopt the so-called Foreign Agents law before the end of the spring session of Parliament, which was rejected in March 2023 due to protests and international pressure. The text of the bill will remain the same, with only the term "agent of foreign influence" being replaced by "organization carrying out the interests of a foreign power," Mdinaradze said.
"Last year, there was a risk of extreme provocations, which we will insure against, including from an informational standpoint.
We have to admit one thing - last year, we were really not able to communicate fully because throughout the year, I met many people who personally told me that they were greatly misled. They protested against a law that they had not read and had no idea what it was about. They were simply indignant because this law seemed to be Russian," Mdinaradze told journalists at today's briefing.
Mamuka Mdinaradze answered the question of why it was decided to reintroduce the law when the leaders of the party and the government had announced that this issue was closed for the entire year. According to Mdinaradze, donor funding "became even more opaque."
"We kept reiterating, 'We will not revoke the law.' On the other hand, from the donors' side, including during meetings, there was a condition that finances and financing would be transparent. Despite this promise, the financing did not become transparent; it became even more opaque. The money coming into the country from different directions became even darker."
According to the assessment of members of the parliamentary opposition, Georgian Dream has declared its final battle against the interests of Georgia. Deputies are urging citizens, as they did last year, to unite and not allow the Georgian Dream to adopt the Russian law.
