Washington has imposed visa restrictions on dozens of Georgian officials in response to the country’s adoption this week of a “foreign agents” law that critics say is undemocratic and inspired by Russia.
“We are taking steps to impose visa restrictions on dozens of Georgian individuals,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on June 6.
“This includes individuals responsible for or complicit … in undermining democracy in Georgia,” he told reporters.
Earlier this week, Georgia, a small country in the South Caucasus region, adopted a “Transparency of Foreign Influence Law” aimed at curtailing perceived foreign influence.
Pushed through by the ruling Georgian Dream party, the law requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations pursuing foreign interests.”
Proponents of the law say the legislation is needed to protect Georgia from malign foreign influences operating under the guise of “civil society.”
They also say the legislation is necessary to safeguard Georgia’s national sovereignty and combat “pseudo-liberal values” imposed by foreign entities.
Opponents of the legislation say the law will stifle free speech and expression, and impede Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union, which granted the country candidate status last year.
The past two months have seen several large demonstrations against the new law, organized by pro-EU opposition parties, local “civil society” groups, and high-profile Georgian celebrities.
Several Western countries and institutions—including the EU, the United States, Britain, and France—have repeatedly called on Georgia to scrap the legislation.
In mid-May, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, warned that the law’s ratification would “negatively impact” Georgia’s EU membership bid.
Last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Washington was “deeply troubled” by what she described as the “Kremlin-style” law.
Moscow denies any association with Georgia’s foreign influence law or its recent ratification by the country’s parliament.
‘Additional Actions’
According to Mr. Miller, the “first tranche” of visa restrictions will target members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, parliamentarians who voted in favor of the law, police officials, and certain private individuals.“This includes individuals responsible for … undermining democracy in Georgia by undermining freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, violently attacking peaceful protesters, intimidating civil society representatives, and deliberately spreading disinformation,” Mr. Miller said.
“This is just the first step in our series of actions,” he added. “We are undertaking a full review of our relationship with the government of Georgia.”
The spokesman also voiced hope that Georgia’s leadership would “reconsider their actions and take steps to move forward with their nation’s long-stated democratic and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
“If they do not,” Mr. Miller warned, “the United States is prepared to take additional actions.”
Thea Tsulukiani, Georgia’s deputy prime minister, described Washington’s measures against Georgian officials as a “mistake.”
“This is another mistake that … the United States is making in its relations with a strategic partner,” she said in remarks to the local press on June 7.
“From this, we should probably assume that other mistakes will be made [by the United States],” Ms. Tsulukiani, who also serves as Georgia’s minister of culture, added.
Last year, a similar effort by the Georgian Dream party to adopt legislation against foreign influence was scrapped after several days of street protests in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.
At the time, Russia’s foreign ministry claimed the protests were being directed from overseas, comparing them to Ukraine’s “Maidan Revolution” a decade ago.
This week, Mikhail Galuzin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, made similar claims.
Mr. Miller, for his part, described Mr. Galuzin’s assertions as another example of Russian disinformation.
“We have seen the Russian government use disinformation to spread lies and rumors across Europe and across the world,” he told reporters on June 4.
“And we continue to consult with our partners about the best way to respond to that,” the spokesman added.
