About 50,000 opponents of a \u201cforeign agents\u201d bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the\u00a0Georgian capital on Saturday, after the\u00a0United\u00a0States said the country had\u00a0to choose between the\u00a0\u201cKremlin-style\u201d law and\u00a0the people\u2019s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in\u00a0Georgia,\u201d\u00a0White House national security adviser\u00a0Jake Sullivan wrote on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cGeorgian parliamentarians face a critical choice \u2013 whether to support the\u00a0Georgian people\u2019s Euro-Atlantic aspirations or pass a Kremlin-style foreign agents\u2019 law that runs counter to democratic values,\u201d he said. \u201cWe stand with the\u00a0Georgian people.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bill, which would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as \u201cagents of foreign influence,\u201d has touched off a rolling political crisis in\u00a0Georgia, where thousands have taken to the streets to demand the bill be withdrawn. <\/p>\n
The crowd on Saturday waved\u00a0Georgian, 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe government should hear the free people of\u00a0Georgia,\u201d said one protester in her 30s who gave her name as Nino, waved a large\u00a0Georgian flag and led one of three columns that converged on the city center, which blocked many of the city\u2019s roads and filled the cobblestoned heart of Tbilisi\u2019s old town. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to enter the European Union with our proud nation and our dignity,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Anuki, a 22-year-old student of acting, said it was her generation\u2019s responsibility \u201cto make sure that our future and the future of generations after us are safe, that they have freedom of speech, and they are free, basically.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we don\u2019t want to be part of Russia,\u201d she added. \u201cWe never wanted to be part of Russia. And it has always been and always will be our goal to be part of Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n
Parliament, which is controlled by the ruling\u00a0Georgian Dream party and its allies, will begin committee hearings on the bill\u2019s third and final reading on Monday. Opposition groups had called for a fresh wave of protests from Saturday. <\/p>\n
The crisis has pitted the\u00a0Georgian Dream ruling party against a coalition of opposition parties, civil society, celebrities and the country\u2019s figurehead president, with mass demonstrations shutting down much of central Tbilisi almost nightly for more than a month. <\/p>\n
Georgian opponents of the bill have dubbed it \u201cthe Russian law,\u201d comparing it to legislation used to target critics of\u00a0President\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u2019s Kremlin. <\/p>\n
The European Union, which granted\u00a0Georgia\u00a0candidate status in December, has said that the bill will pose a serious obstacle to further integration if passed. <\/p>\n
Georgian Dream says the bill will promote transparency and\u00a0Georgian national sovereignty. <\/p>\n
Bidzina\u00a0Ivanishvili, the founder of\u00a0Georgian Dream, has said the law is necessary to stop the West trying to use\u00a0Georgians\u00a0as \u201ccannon fodder\u201d in a confrontation with Russia. <\/p>\n
Sullivan\u00a0said that\u00a0Georgian Dream appeared to be deliberately trying to break with the West, even as both the ruling party and\u00a0Georgian public opinion has traditionally been in favor of the country joining the EU and the US-led NATO military alliance. <\/p>\n
Sullivan wrote: \u201cGeorgian Dream\u2019s recent rhetoric, proposed legislative changes, and actions go against the aspirations of the\u00a0Georgian people and are designed to isolate\u00a0Georgians from the United States and Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
About 50,000 opponents of a \u201cforeign agents\u201d bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the\u00a0Georgian capital on Saturday, after the\u00a0United\u00a0States said the country had\u00a0to choose between the\u00a0\u201cKremlin-style\u201d law and\u00a0the people\u2019s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. \u201cWe are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in\u00a0Georgia,\u201d\u00a0White House national security adviser\u00a0Jake Sullivan wrote on X. \u201cGeorgian parliamentarians face a critical choice \u2013 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}