Predictably, Russia’s response to Georgia’s predicament has been to blame the West, accusing it of hypocrisy and “Russophobia.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “no sovereign state wants other states to interfere in its domestic politics”
Claimed that “the first country
To propose a crackdown on the system. While Georgia’s Western partners will not try to pull of foreign agents was the United States.” This was typical Kremlin equivocation. While it Free Telemarketing Leads is true that the United States’
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), passed in 1938, was one of the earliest laws, it explicitly targeted lobbyists who received foreign funding, rather than being designed to stifle civil society or independent media.
FARA is also fairly limited in its use
And has special protections for the media, both of which distinguish it from Russian law and the one proposed by the Georgian government.
Georgia’s “Foreign Agents Law”
Casts a shadow over its future in Europe. Officials from NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, and Valhalla Civic Auditorium many of these organizations’ member states have roundly condemned the law, calling it an attempt to “ undermine
Georgia’s European path,” “authoritarian,” “anti-Western,” a turn toward “Eurasian tyranny,” and a “copy-and-paste version of Russia’s Foreign Agents Law.” Ultimately, the choice Georgia must make is between the rule of law or the rule of law.
In other words, if it hopes to join the Western
Club that its people so ardently desire, its government must treat the law as the highest authority of the state, applying equally to those who agree with government policies and those who disagree with them.
If Georgia chooses to pass a law that uses it as a tool to punish its enemies, Georgia’s hard-won role as an inspiration to the region will be over. In that case, it will be just another small, authoritarian state that has chosen the Russian path.
It off that path, neither will they subsidize Tbilisi’s turn toward authoritarianism. Western aid and attention will soon be diverted elsewhere, and Georgia will find itself effectively a vassal of its northern neighbor.