What is Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ bill, and why is Europe so alarmed?

CNN
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Georgia’s parliament is set to pass a highly controversial so-called “foreign agents” bill that has triggered widespread protests across the former Soviet republic nestled in the Caucasus Mountains.

Tens of thousands of people in capital city Tbilisi have been protesting the legislation. Critics warn that it mirrors a foreign agents law already passed in Russia and could jeopardize Georgia’s bid to join the European Union.

But Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said the government is not planning any “substantial changes” to the bill, and has vowed to get it passed on Tuesday, when lawmakers in the former Soviet country are expected to vote.

Here’s what you need to know about the proposed law and the uproar it has caused.

The bill would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence” or face crippling fines.

The legislation was drafted by the Georgian Dream party, which along with its allies controls parliament. The proposal will receive a vote on Tuesday and it is expected to pass.

Georgia President Salome Zourabichvili called the bill “an exact duplicate” of its Russian counterpart in an interview with CNN.

She has vowed to veto the bill, but that won’t mean much. Georgia’s government is a parliamentary system, so Zourabichvili is effectively a figurehead. Real power lies with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, also wields significant political influence.

A couple of reasons.

The proposed law is modeled after a similar one in Russia that the Kremlin has used to increasingly snuff out opposition and civil society. Many Georgians fear their foreign agents bill will be used to the same way it has been in its northern neighbor: to quash dissent and free expression by going after nongovernmental organizations with financial ties overseas.

Georgian Dream contends the legislation will promote transparency and national sovereignty and has hit back at Western criticism over the proposal.

But the law’s possible passage has touched on a more existential question: whether Georgia’s future lies with Europe or Russia.

Georgia has, like Ukraine, been caught between the two geopolitical forces since achieving…