US ‘alarmed’, 50,000 protest Georgia’s foreign agent bill

Lawmakers have to choose between their people’s EU and Nato aspirations or the ‘Kremlin-style’ law, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says

Opponents of the bill have dubbed it ‘the Russian law’, comparing it to legislation used to target critics of President Vladimir Putin

Reading Time:2 minutes

Demonstrators hold a rally to protest against a bill on “foreign agents” in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:09am, 12 May 2024Updated: 1:45pm, 12 May 2024

About 50,000 opponents of a “foreign agents” bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the Georgian capital on Saturday, after the United States said the country had to choose between the “Kremlin-style” law and the people’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

“We are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan wrote on X.

“Georgian Parliamentarians face a critical choice – whether to support the Georgian people’s EuroAtlantic aspirations or pass a Kremlin-style foreign agents’ law that runs counter to democratic values,” he said. “We stand with the Georgian people.”

The bill, which would require organisations receiving more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence”, has touched off a rolling political crisis in Georgia, where thousands have taken to the streets to demand the bill be withdrawn.

A demonstrator holds an EU flag during a rally against “the Russian law” in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Saturday. Photo: AP

The crowd on Saturday waved Georgian, European Union and some Ukrainian flags and in a break with the past, included more older protesters as well as the many young people who have thronged the streets over the past month.