A country which was being courted by the European Union (EU) has voted to bring in “Russian laws”.
Georgia’s parliament passed the first reading of its controversial ‘foreign influence bill’ on Wednesday, with critics slamming it as being repressive and Russian-inspired.
The law would require organisations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “organisations pursuing the interests of a foreign power” with those who do not sign up threatened with fines.
It has sparked major demonstrations in the country accusing the law of destroying freedoms and threatening its chances of joining the EU.
The EU has told Georgia to drop the text arguing that it runs against the reform programme the country needs to undertake in order to progress towards membership.
Georgia was granted EU candidateship in December, but the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on Twitter that the draft law “will take Georgia further away from the EU instead of bringing it closer”.
The vote over the law was boycotted by the opposition, while the ruling Georgian Dream party voted 83 to none in favour of the bill.
Two further readings are expected to follow in a process that could take weeks, especially as Georgian president Salome Zurabishvili, who is pro-European and in conflict with the government, could then veto the bill. However, the deputies close to the government have a sufficient majority to overcome it.
Thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets of Tbilisi this week held up placards reading ‘no to the Russian law’ as riot police chased demonstrators down alleyways close to the parliament.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday evening that one police officer had been injured during the protests and called on them to “stop their illegal actions”.
A new demonstration is scheduled for Wednesday evening.
The text has been compared to the Russian law on ‘foreign agents’ used by the Kremlin since 2014 to persecute dissident voices, such as NGOs and independent media.
