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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Polad Aslanov, founder of the religious website xeberman.com, who went on hunger strike in the colony on 4 November, was forcibly transferred to the Penitentiary Service hospital in the evening of the same day. This was reported to Turan by his wife Gulmira Aslanov.
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The Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Azerbaijan is pleased to announce the preopening of the Ukrainian Center in Baku, scheduled for 9 November 2024 at 12 pm. The Ukrainian Center, originally established to promote Ukrainian culture, language, heritage and education in Azerbaijan, has been renovated and expanded to better serve its mission.
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The health condition of activist Nijat Ibrahim has sharply worsened while he remains in Baku's Detention Center No. 1, his wife Parvin Ibrahim told Turan news agency. According to her, Ibrahim called today to report severe back pain, and he can barely move. Recently, his blood pressure has also risen, and doctors have diagnosed him with hypertension.
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On Sunday, November 5, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Kyrgyzstan to participate in the 11th Summit of Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States. Upon his arrival at Manas 2 International Airport in Bishkek, Aliyev was greeted with a ceremonial honor guard and welcomed by Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister and Chief of Staff, Akylbek Japarov, along with other officials.
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