In Georgia, the law against "foreign agents", an analogue of which operates in the USA, has been finally approved

In Georgia, the parliament, whose legitimacy is not recognized by the fifth President Salome Zurabishvili, the opposition, and a significant part of the public, has adopted the law "on registration of foreign agents." According to the ruling party "Georgian Dream", this law is an analogue of the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), reports UNN with reference to the Georgian publication SOVA.

Details

The document defines the concept of an agent of a foreign principal (a natural or legal person who authorizes another person to act as an agent - ed.) and a foreign power.

The bill regulates the following issues:

• the issue of registering an entity as an agent of a foreign principal;

• the issue of ensuring the publicity of the application for registration as an agent of a foreign principal and other relevant documents;

• the issue of submitting an annual financial declaration by an entity registered as an agent of a foreign principal;

• the issue of annulment of the registration of an entity registered as an agent of a foreign principal;

• the issue of conducting monitoring to identify an agent of a foreign principal or to verify compliance with the requirements specified in the bill.

The bill also establishes criminal liability for evading registration as an agent of a foreign principal or non-compliance with the requirements established in the bill. The Anti-Corruption Bureau will be entrusted with ensuring the implementation of the law.

Reference

The aforementioned FARA law was adopted in the United States in the 1930s to suppress Nazi and Soviet propaganda. The purpose of FARA is to control the direct influence of foreign power on domestic policy, when entities funded from abroad do not act autonomously and are fully subject to the instructions of their foreign sponsors.

It is worth noting that the FARA law does not impede the activities of independent non-governmental organizations and free media. In turn, in Georgia, the government wants to rewrite the Russian law adopted against the civil sector.

Supplement

The ruling party "Georgian Dream" initiated a package of amendments according to which the Constitutional Court of Georgia receives the right to ban new parties, "whose declared goals, nature of activity and personnel are identical to already banned parties".

Another amendment defines the terms for making a decision on a constitutional complaint against the activities of parties: 9 months from the date of filing the claim, and in the pre-election period – 14 days.