“For Georgia” MPs Submit Draft on Protection from “Russian Influence”

On March 1, the MPs from former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s “For Georgia” party tabled a draft law titled “On protection from the influence of the occupying power – the Russian Federation,” in an apparent move to counter the two Russian-inspired draft laws on “foreign agents” submitted by the ruling majority.

The MPs of the “For Georgia” party aimed to formally register the legislative initiative at the March 2 session of the Parliamentary Bureau, but Speaker Shalva Papuashvili postponed the decision until Monday, March 6.

The new draft would define “the forces supported by the occupying power” as individuals or organizations who act “in accordance with Russia’s open and/or covert interests,” receive direct or indirect funding from there, act as consultants or agents of those parties and otherwise represent their interests with the Georgian authorities. According to the draft law, being an agent of the occupying country will become a criminal offense.

Presenting the draft, MP Beka Liluashvili said that Russia “uses propaganda against the security and independence of this country and damages the European path of our country’s development by open or covert means.”

He added, that with the adoption of the Russian-inspired draft law on “foreign agents,” the government “is trying to put the sign of equality between friends and enemies, which changes the national, constitutional goal, confuses the foreign orientation, which no government has and will have the right to do.”

“Our draft law calls everything by its name. Its goal is the only correct goal that such legislation can have in this country – to call the enemy an enemy,” MP Liluashvili stressed, expressing hope that the ruling majority “will have the courage to name Russia an enemy […] and will support this initiative.”

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)