The “foreign agents” law that mimicked a similar Russian law has been pulled “unconditionally” by the parliament after two days of relentless mass protests.
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This is a huge victory for the protesters and a defeat for forces trying to drag Georgia into Russia’s orbit, including the postironically named party “Georgian dream” that holds the parliamentary majority. It is backed by its founder, the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who proclaimed European integration of Georgia as his goal while maintaining curiously strong ties with Russia.
Were the law passed, it would have made European integration of Georgia (including EU membership) nearly impossible, because it would sanction NGOs and media for receiving “foreign funding,” thereby suppressing freedom of speech. It would also be a particularly vicious blow against anti-Putin Russian- and Belarusian-language journalists who fled to Georgia.
In Russia, a similar (2017 with draconian 2022 amendments) law had been used to effectively destroy the remaining free press in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine.
Edit: to put the story further into context…
1. The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili is an independent, not from the “Georgian Dream” party. She met with the protesters and promised to veto the law, but her veto could have been overridden.
2. The EU delegation in Georgia welcomed the demise of the law ( don’t want to embed Twitter, so the link should suffice).
3. Just as a reminder, Georgia served as a testing ground for various post-Soviet imperialist ideas way before the annexation of Crimea, including breakaway “independent” regions (Abkhazia) and territorial takeovers by force (South Ossetia).
4. The 2008 Russia-Georgia war that led to the de-facto annexation of South Ossetia was also mishandled by the Georgian government of the time which botched the run-up to the conflict and lost both the battlefield war and the propaganda war (at least for a time).
Forgot to add: thanks to the community for putting this story on the Recommended list.