Key U.S. Officials Set To Testify Before Congress Over Georgia, Moldova Policy

Key Biden administration officials involved in Georgia and Moldova policy will next week testify before the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs on U.S. policy in both countries ahead of their elections this October, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretaries on Eurasia, Joshua Huck and Christopher Smith, as well as USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia, Alexander Sokolowski, are set to testify at an open hearing of the Subcommittee on Europe on Tuesday July 23.

The U.S. has recently launched a comprehensive review of its relations with Georgia following the passing of the “Russian law”, a copycat piece of legislation imported from Moscow, which forces Georgian civil society groups to register as foreign agents if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

The law is set to be implemented later this summer, just in time to cripple civil society ahead of the country’s crucial parliamentary election on Oct 26.

Early this week, State Department's spokesperson Matthew Miller told TURAN's Washington correspondent that the U.S. 'continues to support' the Georgian people’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, "but we have seen the Government of Georgia take a different turn and take a different path."

"It is the Georgian Government’s actions that have fundamentally altered its relationship with the United States, but not just with the United States, with others – with countries in Europe," Miller said.

Tuesday's congressional hearing, chaired by Congressman Thomas H. Kean, Jr (R-NJ), will be available via live webcast on the Committee website at https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/: Additional witnesses may be added, according to a hearing notice issued by Chairman Kean.