Georgia passes controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill despite widespread opposition

By Ekaterine Kadagishvili, Joshua Berlinger, Jessie Gretener and Amy Cassidy, CNN

Tbilisi, Georgia (CNN) — Georgia’s parliament has passed a controversial “foreign agents” bill despite widespread domestic opposition and warnings from the European Union that its enactment would imperil the country’s chances of joining the bloc.

The new law will require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence” or face crippling fines. Opponents say that the legislation was modeled after similar laws in Russia that the Kremlin has used to increasingly snuff out opposition and civil society.

The law was approved on Tuesday by 84 lawmakers voting in favor to 30 against. After the vote, riot police moved on protesters in Tbilisi after some individuals smashed down the barriers and broke into the grounds of the parliament.

Many Georgians fear their foreign agents bill will be used the same way in their country. Georgia’s parliament now has 10 days to send the bill to President Salome Zourabichvili, who has already vowed to veto it. Zourabichvili has two weeks to do so, but parliament can override her objection with a simple majority.

The bill has become a cultural flashpoint in a country which, like Ukraine, finds itself caught between Russia and Europe. Polls show that an estimated 80% of Georgians want to join the EU, but Moscow’s geopolitical orbit has proven tough to exit.

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Zourabichvili said the upcoming elections in October will give the population a chance to “reverse” the bill. “We have to use this mobilization of the society and this consolidation of the political parties to go and win those elections because that’s the European way,” she said.

Georgia applied for membership of the bloc in 2022 and was granted candidate status in December, a move seen as an effort to reverse the former Soviet republic’s drift toward Russia. However, EU leaders have made it clear that the foreign agents bill’s passage would jeopardize Georgia’s chances of accession.

The United States also voiced concerns about the bill and “democratic backsliding” in the country, which is nestled in the Caucasus Mountains, bordered by Russia to the north and Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the south.

Georgian Dream, the ruling party that pushed through the legislation, has hit back at criticism, saying the move will promote transparency and national sovereignty. But the party has long been suspected of harboring pro-Russian sympathies, especially given that its founder, the billionaire former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, made his fortune in the Soviet Union.

President Zourabichvili called the legislation a “Russian law,” adding that Georgians are “very well aware of these old Russian Soviet propaganda tricks, so it doesn’t work. They see what’s happening and they’re going to stop it from happening.”

The movement of the bill has ignited a feverish response, including in parliament, where scuffles and shouting matches broke out during the hours-long debate that preceded the law’s passage on Tuesday. Masked officers engaged with the crowds shortly afterwards, as riot police appear to be preparing to disperse the protesters.

Similar scenes played out last month when an opposition lawmaker punched a key Georgian Dream member in the face, sparking a wider brawl.

Many anti-Russian, pro-European Georgians remain angry over Russia’s invasion in 2008 and the fact that the Kremlin still occupies about 20% of Georgia’s internationally recognized territory – about the same proportion that Russia occupies in Ukraine.

Nightly protests have been shutting down the capital, Tbilisi, for about a month. About 50,000 people came out Sunday evening in the city of 1 million people to speak out against what they’ve dubbed “the Russian law.”

“It is a Russian law. It is an exact duplicate of the Putin law that was adopted a few years ago and then complemented in order to crush civil society,” Zourabichvili, the Georgian president and a longstanding opponent of Georgian Dream, told CNN in an interview.

Zourabichvili told CNN she would veto the law, but the country’s parliament can override that with a simple majority.

Levan Khabeishvili, a protester who was seriously hurt after being beaten by police, told CNN that the law is yet another example of Moscow trying to assert its authority in the region. CNN has reached out to authorities for more information on why police used excessive force against him.

“We know that this law is dangerous for our future. It threatens our partnership with the West,” Khabeishvili said.

The Kremlin has claimed that the law was being used to “provoke anti-Russian sentiments.” Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said on Tuesday that criticism of the bill was tantamount to “undisguised interference in Georgia’s internal affairs.”

Current Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s office declined an interview request from CNN.

CNN’s Christian Edwards, Anna Chernova and Vasco Cotovio contributed to this report.

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