The State Department said on Tuesday it was 'concerned' over the enforcement of Georgia's recently passed controversial "foreign agent" law for "those entities that did not voluntarily register, including civic organizations and independent media," as spokesperson Matthew Miller put it, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
The move came as the Georgian government is poised to take actions — either forcibly register, or impose fines — against organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad, as the deadline for registration under the copycat piece of legislation imported from Moscow, expired on September 2.
In the one-month window provided by the law for voluntary registration, 476 organizations applied to the Ministry of Justice with a registration request, as announced by the country's Justice Ministry.
"The Georgia Government continues to move in a deeply, deeply troubling direction, one that moves the country further away from its Euro-Atlantic trajectory, which the Georgian people, we know, overwhelmingly desire," Miller told a daily briefing.
As part of our comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation between the U.S. States and Georgia that the Secretary Antony Blinken announced early this summer, Washington has implemented visa restrictions on dozens of Georgian individuals and their family members, including members of the Georgian Dream Party, members of parliament, law enforcement, and private citizens, and the State Department has paused $95 million in assistance that directly benefited the Government of Georgia, Miller recalled.
"That review remains ongoing. I would not rule out further actions," the spokesperson concluded.
Local analysts believe that requiring NGOs that receive funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents" is a part of the Georgian Dream party's efforts to eliminate dissenting voices ahead of national elections scheduled for October 26, potentially bringing the country closer to Russia.
Politics
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