WASHINGTON, DC—In response to the Georgian government’s announcement that it intends in the coming days to reintroduce Russian-style “foreign agent” legislation, U.S. Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Ben Cardin (Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee) and Senate Ranking Member Senator Roger Wicker (Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services Committee) issued the following statement:
“This is a deliberate attack on Georgia’s fragile democracy, self-sabotage of its European candidacy, and a blatant rejection of the Georgian people’s overwhelming and hard won Euro-Atlantic choice. This bill is a facsimile of the Russian legislation that inspired it. It is no coincidence that its reintroduction comes amid a broader push for similar legislation in the region. It is appalling but unsurprising that the Georgian Dream would again go down this path despite Russia’s continuing occupation of 20% of the country’s territory.
“We call on the Georgian leadership to abandon this bill and return to its previous liberal democratic trajectory and the Euro-Atlantic choice of its people.”
On April 3, Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party announced the reintroduction of a draft law on foreign agents that had been proposed in early 2023 but was withdrawn in the face of large national protests and international outcry. The bill is a close reproduction of Russia’s foreign agent law and similar to other legislation that has been enacted and pushed among autocracies around the region. It would label internationally-supported civil society and media outlets as “agents of foreign influence,” and appears to specifically target U.S. and European-supported civil society groups. As Russia also claimed, Georgian Dream leaders falsely claim the bill is similar to U.S. and European foreign influence legal frameworks.
