Georgian parliament moves forward with controversial foreign agents law as protests continue
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Georgia's parliament passed a controversial foreign agents law in its first reading on April 17 as protests in opposition to the legislation continued for the third night. The law must be passed in two more readings before it can become law.
The bill, first introduced in 2023 by the ruling Georgian Dream party, would require organizations that receive foreign funding to be labeled as foreign agents. Widespread demonstrations broke out at the time in protest of the proposed law, and it was eventually abandoned in March 2023.
The Georgian Dream party recently reintroduced the legislation in parliament, renaming it a bill on the "transparency of foreign influence" but keeping the intent of the previous law essentially identical.
The bill became popularly known in Georgia as the "Russian law" for its resemblance to similar legislation passed in Russia. Moscow's "foreign agents" registry has been widely used to target and silence groups and individuals who are critical of the government, including independent journalists, activists, and NGOs.
The legislation was approved by 83 lawmakers of Georgia's 150-member parliament, with opposition lawmakers boycotting the vote.
Large-scale demonstrations continue to take place in the city center of Tbilisi, and at least 13 people were arrested for demonstrating. Videos of police brutality against protesters were widely circulated online, with Georgian NGOs condemning the violence.
Political infighting
Even as the parliament moved forward with the law, there are deep divisions within the government and rising tension that has at times escalated into episodes of violence among lawmakers.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the leader of Georgian Dream's parliament faction and a key force behind the bill, was punched in the face by opposition lawmaker Aleko Elisashvili while speaking from the dispatch box during an early discussion of the revived bill.
Local media later reported that Elisashvili was detained and beaten by police after the incident.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a political opponent of Georgian Dream, called the law a "direct provocation" in an interview with BBC and vowed to veto it.
The reintroduction of the law comes against the backdrop of upcoming parliamentary elections and the ongoing process of negotiations on Georgia's accession to the EU.
The European Commission offered Georgia candidate status to the EU in November 2023. It is widely believed that the foreign agents law will hurt Georgia's chances of entering the bloc, if passed.
Zourabichvili said the law "clearly shows the intent of some in power to obstruct our way to (EU) integration."
Sabotaging Georgia's EU aspirations?
After the previous iteration of the law was abandoned last year, Georgian Dream lawmakers pledged not to reintroduce it, and Georgia continued to move forward with the EU accession process.
One of the key aspects of Georgia's pathway into the bloc is the successful implementation of reforms.
EU officials such as European Council President Charles Michel have been unambiguous about the harm the proposed legislation will do to Georgia's chances of joining the EU.
Michel said on April 16 that the law is "not consistent with Georgia's EU aspiration and its accession trajectory and will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer."
The Diplomats Club of Georgia, which consists of former Georgian diplomats, issued a joint statement condemning the law and arguing that it is directly "sabotaging" the country's path into the EU.
The diplomats also called out Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man and former prime minister, who is widely seen to still wield power behind the throne. Ivanishvili is also known to have many business connections in Russia, having made much of his fortune there.
"Instead of (carrying out the EU-mandated reforms), Ivanishvili’s government is trying to kill the beloved dream of several generations of the Georgian people and make the country a province of Russia," the statement read.
Many of the required reforms have remained unfinished, and some analysts have argued that Georgian Dream is aware of rising anger from pro-Western Georgians over the inaction, and have instead decided to appeal to far-right segments of the population.
Georgian Dream has tried to "use LGBT fear and homophobia to gather more votes" and has "significantly increased funding for the church this year," said Ioseb Dzamukashvili Sekniashvili, a political analyst specializing in the politics of Eastern Europe and Russia.
In written comments to the Kyiv Independent, Dzamukashvili Sekniashvili said, "By bringing back the so-called Russian law, they (are attempting) to create this fear that there are foreign agents among us."
Whether Georgian Dream's strategy will work ultimately depends on the "fairness and freeness of the next elections," Dzamukashvili Sekniashvili added.
Other analysts and journalists covering Georgia have put forth different speculations on why the law was revived, including the suggestion that it may have been the result of a direct order from Russia or Ivanishvili, or both.
Another possible explanation is that the law was devised specifically to protect Ivanishvili from possible EU sanctions, in light of reporting from the U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail in April that the oligarch was making preparations to create a shelter for himself and his assets in Brazil.
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