Georgian President vetoes law on foreign agents; US threatened Georgia with sanctions

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the law on foreign agents adopted by parliament. She announced this at a briefing.

    “I vetoed the ‘Russian’ law,” she said.

Zurabishvili believes that the law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” “contradicts the Constitution of Georgia, European standards” and is an obstacle to the “European path.” The document cannot be improved, so it must be canceled, she said.

 Earlier, the Georgian parliament approved the bill on foreign agents in the final third reading, which caused a wave of protests. The foreign ministers of Iceland, Lithuania and Estonia took part in the mass protests. The US threatened Georgia with sanctions due to “undermining democracy.”

  Irakli Garibashvili, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party, described the speeches that foreign ministers of Lithuania, Estonia and Iceland made at a protest in Tbilisi against the bill on foreign agents as meddling in the country's affairs.

"These people spoke at a rally organized by the opposition. What else can we call this if not an insulting interference in the internal political affairs of our country? What is this if not an insult? It is unacceptable when the foreign minister of a foreign country comes [and speaks at a rally], especially a diplomat. This is an unwritten law. This is a red line. And when they speak and teach us what to do from the podium of the opposition, it's unacceptable. What kind of support is this? It is a gross interference, a violation of everything. And they dare tell us about friendship," Garibashvili told reporters.

He said the ministers would probably dislike it if Georgian politicians spoke at opposition rallies in their own countries.

"But we do not interfere in their internal affairs, so why do they allow themselves to do so," he said.