Ned Price on foreign agents law: “It could hinder Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration”
Price on foreign agents law
US State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed that the bill on “foreign agents” initiated by the People’s Power movement could hinder Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
On February 16, Ned Price stated that the proposed law on foreign agents could pose a threat to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration. According to Price, the law is based not on American, but on the Russian and Hungarian laws of this nature.
“We are deeply concerned about the bill’s impact on freedom of speech and democracy in Georgia. We have repeatedly expressed our concerns directly to the government of Georgia. The bill will stigmatize and silence the independent voices of Georgian citizens who want to create a better future for their society.
We believe that the law has the potential to undermine Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration the European aspirations of the Georgian people.
Claims that this legislation is based on the US ‘Foreign Agents Registration Act’ are patently false. The bill that we have read appears to be based on similar Russian and Hungarian legislation, rather than US law,” Price said.
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The Georgian government intends to pass a law according to NGOs and media funded by outside money must be registered as “agents of foreign influence”.
As of February 27, two bills have been registered in parliament — one on February 14 similar to a Russian law, which was criticized so heavily another was submitted which, according to its authors, is similar to the American law.
The authors of both laws are the People’s Power movement, formed by deputies who formally separated from Georgian Dream. “People’s Power” makes anti-Western statements and its members directly admit that this movement was created in order to “tell people the truth about the West, which is trying to drag Georgia into the war.”
The bill is being criticized by everyone except the ruling party — the NGO and media sector, the opposition, experts, politicians who were in power until recently, and even the President of Georgia.
The bill is also sharply criticized by Georgia’s western partners from various international organizations, American senators and European deputies. The American ambassador, Kelly Degnan, bluntly called it “Russian law.”
