A draft law modelled on Russian president Vladimir Putin’s restrictive regime for media and non-governmental organisations has aroused popular anger in Georgia and raised fears it could derail the country’s aspirations to join the EU and Nato.
Riot police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, as they protested against a “foreign agent” law that passed its first reading in parliament on Tuesday.
The two versions of the law under discussion would deem any Georgian NGOs and media receiving more than 20 per cent of their funding from foreign sources as “foreign agents” and subject them to undefined “monitoring”.
The clashes are the latest blow to what was once one of the EU’s best relationships with an aspiring member state, after years of souring ties between Brussels and Tbilisi over what EU officials say is a slide towards a less democratic form of government. Tbilisi has also offered only tepid support for Kyiv and refused to join in western sanctions against Russia after last-year’s invasion of Ukraine. That stance defies large public support for the war-torn country that echoes painful memories of a disastrous five-day war with Russia that cost Georgia a fifth of its territory.
Georgian Dream, the ruling party backed by reclusive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has defended the draft law as a measure against “spies” and “agents of foreign influence” it claims are paid to criticise the government and the Georgian Orthodox Church.
But the US, EU and Georgia’s own president have fiercely criticised the law, which its critics say marks a lurch towards Russia-style repression even though the constitution mandates Georgia to “take all measures” to join the EU and Nato.
Even as Georgian Dream has claimed the move is based on a similarly named law in the US, the language more closely resembles Russian law that Putin used to in effect destroy civil society in the decade after he returned as president in 2012.
Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s president, said she would veto the bill and backed the protesters in a video shot by the Statue of Liberty in New York.
“I stand beside you because today, you represent a free Georgia!” she said. “A Georgia that sees its future in Europe and that will not allow anyone to deprive [us] of this future.”
The US embassy said the process “raises real questions about the ruling party’s commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration” and called the bills’ passage — including procedural irregularities and efforts to keep opposition lawmakers and journalists out of the parliament — “a dark day for Georgia’s democracy.”
The EU has said the law breaches EU standards, undermines Georgia’s stated intention to become a member of the bloc and risks “serious repercussions on our relations”.
“The law in its current form risks having a chilling effect on civil society and media organisations, with negative consequences for the many Georgians . . . This is a very bad development for Georgia and its people,” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.
The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Wednesday that the law “raises serious questions about the prospects of democracy in Georgia” and warned the country to “refrain from decisions that may undermine aspirations of Georgia’s people” to advance towards EU and Nato membership.
The furore over the law follows a political crisis in 2021 when former president Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested, sparking protests. Then, European Council president Charles Michel personally intervened to strike a deal between the government and other parties, but it was torn up within months in a blow to the bloc’s perceived influence in the country.
