Georgian splinter group proposes law "on foreign agents"

Law on foreign agents

Deputies who broke from from the ruling Georgian Dream party and founded the People’s Power movement will initiate a bill on “Transparency of Foreign Influence in Parliament”. It will affect the activities of organizations operating with foreign funding.

According to this bill, Georgian NGOs receiving money from foreign sources will have to enter a register of “foreign agents”. According to former public defender Sozar Subari, this will be a Western analogue of financial transparency and has nothing to do with the Russian model.

According to Guram Macharashvili, one of the leaders of People’s Power, they believe that, based on the principles of openness and transparency, the public should know not only the sources of income of politicians who make decisions in the state, but also the income of NGOs and the media, since they influence public decisions and participate in the formation of public opinion or take an active part in the discussions held by the legislative and executive authorities when adopting laws or decisions.

“That is why we propose, in order to ensure transparency of foreign influence, to create a register that will include all non-profit legal entities and media outlets, more than 20% of whose income is financed by foreign powers,” Macharashvili says.

He explains that the issue of registration of such people as agents of foreign influence should be dealt with by the National Agency of the State Register, and appropriate administrative fines levied upon those who evade registration. At the same time, payment of the fine does not relieve the subject from the obligation to register as an agent of foreign influence.

The deputies also note that in the coming days they intend to initiate another bill, which “will ensure the adoption of preventive measures against lies and obscene language in the media space as much as possible.”

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What does the Russian law on “foreign agents” mean?

Vladimir Putin signed an amendment to the law on “foreign agents” on February 25, 2021.

The law on “foreign agents” signed by Putin on February 24 applies equally to media outlets and individuals and provides for fines of up to 2,500 rubles [about $34] for individuals and up to 500,000 rubles [about $6,800] for organizations.

When the law on registration of foreign agents in Russia was passed, the American version was also mentioned, with Russia arguing that America does the same thing.

The law was first adopted in 2012 during Putin’s third presidential term and has since undergone several changes. Putin decided to pass this law in response to the February 2012 protests, accusing foreign governments of encouraging and funding the protests.

The law requires foreign-assisted NGOs which the Russian government considers politically active to identify themselves as “foreign agents” and register with the audit service.

Recent amendments to the law target foreign-funded media outlets. Among them is the Russian-language Radio Liberty, as well as six other Russian-language news services, and Current Time, a joint media project between Voice of America and Radio Liberty. After the invasion of Ukraine, the ranks of “foreign agents” were replenished by the publications Meduza and Novaya Gazeta.

Since the end of 2020, changes in the law allow the Russian government to classify individual journalists as “foreign agents” and impose restrictions on them.

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Three deputies of the Georgian Dream party – Sozar Subari, Mikhail Kavelashvili and Dmitry Khundadze – left their party and parliamentary posts on June 28, 2022 and later founded the People’s Power movement.

Mikheil Kavelashvili also sent an open letter to US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan, urging her to publicly distance herself from the provocations and technical demands of the opposition National Movement Party to protect America’s image.

On July 22, the same three deputies appealed to US State Department spokesman Ned Price. According to them, they do not want other countries to rudely interfere in Georgia’s “internal affairs”. This MPs statement follows Ned Price’s support for US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan.