Simply over a yr after it was withdrawn, the controversial invoice on “overseas brokers” is again within the highlight in Georgia, and, once more, a number of thousand persons are taking to the streets of Tbilisi each night. Georgian and European flags in hand, they demand withdrawal of the invoice and denounce Russian affect on the insurance policies of the chief, led by the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s pro-Russian Georgian Dream social gathering.
Copied from the Russian regulation of 2012, the textual content on “overseas brokers”, adopted at first studying on 17 April, would oblige NGOs and impartial media whose revenues come from greater than 20 % of overseas donors to register as organisations “representing the pursuits of a overseas energy”. As such, they might be topic to regulate by the Ministry of Justice and could possibly be compelled to reveal delicate data on ache of heavy fines.
The measure, which is all of the extra controversial given the dependence of many impartial media shops and NGOs on Western funding, would mark a halt to the European ambitions of Georgia, which final December obtained the standing of candidate nation for EU membership.
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