In an interview with the BBC, President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili discussed the draft law on so-called Foreign Agents, which was passed by the Parliament in its first reading today.
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“Well it’s a major concern because it is exactly a copy of Putin’s law that was adopted in 2012 and then gradually increased and developed. It’s a low against the NGOs’ activities, it’s a law against media activity, and it’s a law against all the international organizations of our partner countries, the European countries, Great Britain or the United States, that have been supporting Georgia’s independent, building our state institutions, development of our economy for the last 30 years and more. And so, it’s a very big concern. That’s why last year the same law was rejected by massive demonstrations and it couldn’t be adopted. And this time the repeal of this law is a direct provocation to Georgian society,” Salome Zurabishvili stated.
Salome Zurabishvili said that the financing of international organizations supporting Georgia is very transparent, but high-level corruption and decision-making processes remain opaque.
“What is not transparent is the corruption in the high level of the government. It’s not transparent where the decisions are taken, especially this decision on reintroducing the law that all our European partners are saying will go against our European future and integration. Who has decided that his law should be reintroduced? Is it in Georgia? Or is it beyond our borders? Is it in Moscow where this decision has been taken? That is the main question about transparency that the Georgian population is asking,” Zurabishvili said and noted that mass demonstrations against the Russian law have been taking place in Tbilisi for three days.
According to the President, this law clearly indicates the intention of some authorities to create obstacles on the path to European integration. However, the ongoing events on the streets demonstrate that people are determined to pursue European integration.
Salome Zurabishvili noted that the main test will come on October 26, together with the parliamentary elections. The President considers the Russian law an attempt to prevent free and fair elections.
Today, March 17, despite massive protests and criticism from international partners, the Georgian Parliament supported the Russian law on so-called Foreign Agents in the first reading. Out of the 83 MPs who voted for the adoption of this law, 73 are members of Georgian Dream, and the rest are satellites of the ruling party - People's Power and European Socialists. The opposition did not participate in the voting; some of them were expelled by the chairman of the parliament, and some left the session hall as a sign of protest.
Georgian Dream passed a similar bill in the first reading last year, in March, but people's protests forced it to be rejected. Party leaders vowed to withdraw the bill "unconditionally, without any reservations," but a year later, in early April, they reintroduced it. The text of the draft law remained the same - only "agent of foreign influence" was replaced by the term "organization carrying out the interests of a foreign power." The purpose of the draft law is to restrict independent media and civil society. The ruling party intends to pass it in all three readings before the end of the spring session, despite the fact that it may harm Georgia's European integration process.
