Georgia adopts Russia-style ‘foreign agents’ law

Georgia has adopted a highly contested “foreign agents” law, despite months of street protests and warnings from Brussels about the bill putting the country’s EU bid at risk.

The parliament in Tbilisi descended into chaos on Tuesday during the vote on the bill, with dozens of MPs engaging in a physical fight as they sought to prevent the adoption of the law. Under the new regulation which critics say is inspired by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, NGOs and media that receive foreign funding will now be required to register with the government or face fines.

“This is a repress-anyone-you-like law,” said Hans Gutbrod, professor of public policy at Ilia State University in Tbilisi. Gutbrod said authorities could now stigmatise and harass civil society organisations to cow them into silence.

Georgian president and critic of the law Salome Zourabichvili promised to veto the draft — but the ruling Georgian Dream party has enough votes to override it, meaning that the law will ultimately enter into force.

Its passage marks a pivotal moment for the Caucasus nation, where the majority of the population backs EU membership and opposes the country sliding back into Russia’s orbit.

The legislation is “very dangerous for Georgia’s European ambitions” said European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano. “The expectations are very clear — if this piece of legislation is adopted, it will be a grave obstacle for Georgia when it comes to [its] European outlook.” Tbilisi is an EU candidate country but accession talks have not yet started, pending the adoption of a series of reforms.

On Tuesday morning, protesters against what they described as “the Russian law”, began gathering outside the parliament building, draped in Georgian and EU flags. Opposition MPs also hung the EU and Georgian flags from the parliament’s windows.

In response to the news of the law being passed, protesters booed the parliament building and began banging on the metal fences surrounding it. 

This was the latest in a series of protests against the law that have shaken Georgia for the second month, not only in the capital Tbilisi but also other major cities such as Kutaisi and Batumi.

On Monday, students from 30 Georgian universities joined the protests and went on strike, backed by professors who posted photos of themselves in empty classrooms.

Tens of thousands of Georgians have taken part in daily protests that have often degenerated into violent clashes with police, who have deployed a full range of equipment against the demonstrators, from water cannons and tear gas to truncheons. Many protesters have ended up in hospital with fractures, bruises and broken teeth. Dozens have been arrested.

Analysts said it was possible Georgia could slide into the type of police repression deployed in Belarus after Alexander Lukashenko’s presidential election victory in 2020.

For years, the Georgian Dream-led government had sought to strike a balance between stabilising ties with Moscow and paying lip service to the objective of euro-Atlantic integration, said Tom de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe.

“This policy that might have seemed quite clever a couple of years ago was now cutting Georgia adrift,” he said.

In a sign of Georgian Dream’s increasing isolation from western partners, the oligarch behind the party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, on Tuesday refused to meet US and German officials who made a last-ditch attempt to stop the law.

Additional reporting by Daria Mosolova in Brussels