How US FARA differs from Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ law - lawyer explains
How Georgia’s foreign agents law differs from FARA
“The U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) does not apply to independent NGOs and media organizations that operate according to their own statutes and free will,” says Saba Brachveli, a lawyer at Open Society Foundations, commenting on the differences between FARA and Georgia’s version of the law.
On 18 March 2025, the ruling Georgian Dream party passed a bill modeled on the American FARA. However, the Georgian version — titled the “Law on the Registration of Foreign Agents” — differs significantly in scope and intent.
Brachveli emphasises that although Georgian Dream literally translated FARA, the American and Georgian versions of the law are fundamentally different:
“A law — including FARA — is not just a set of words, but the meaning given to it by those who implement and interpret it. Georgian Dream kept the language of U.S. law but changed the definitions, content, and practice used by the Ministry of Justice and the courts.”
The lawyer also explains that the U.S. foreign agent registry does not include independent NGOs and media organisations that operate voluntarily and have their own statutory goals. It includes only those directly controlled by foreign governments:
“That’s why in the FARA register, you’ll find media outlets like Sputnik and Russia Today, but not the BBC, Deutsche Welle, or others. BBC and Deutsche Welle are also funded by their respective governments — which are ‘foreign’ to the U.S. — but they are independent media, so no one asks them to register as ‘foreign agents’.”
According to the lawyer, no one asks Transparency International America to register as a “foreign agent” in the U.S., while the aim of the Georgian law is precisely to include Transparency International Georgia and other NGOs in such a registry:
“Calling this law American is a clever trick. In reality, they just copied the words while changing the meaning. If this law were truly American, it wouldn’t apply to independent organisations. But the Georgian authorities plan to apply it to exactly those. That’s why this isn’t FARA — it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a new version of the Russian law.”
The Law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence”, dubbed the “Russian law” by the opposition due to its similarities to Russia’s “foreign agent” legislation, was introduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party and passed in its third reading by parliament on 28 May 2024. It mandates the creation of a special register for “foreign agent organisations” — defined as any group receiving over 20% of its funding from abroad. In a small and low-income country like Georgia, this includes virtually all NGOs.
In the lawyer’s view, the goals behind adopting the “Law on the Registration of Foreign Agents” are:
- to distract supporters from the “Russian law” label;
- to pressure the civil sector into self-censorship out of fear of criminal prosecution;
- to gain legitimacy through the illusion of legal compliance.
Saba Brachveli also writes about what civil society organizations, media, and individuals should consider. Before deciding whether to register or not, he suggests they reflect on several key points:
1. The main goal of passing this law for the third time is to intimidate you and make you stop your work.
2. The law will not come into force before June 2025. We’ll likely see the procedural protocol in May, and if it’s copied from the American model, navigating bureaucracy, appeals, etc., will take many more months. So you’ll face the decision on registration or refusal much later — not within weeks, as was the case last year.
3. Remember the precedent of resistance. Georgian Dream failed to enforce the previously passed “foreign agents” law because civil society united. That hasn’t changed — strength still lies in solidarity.
