{"id":41078,"date":"2024-05-02T12:03:57","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T12:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/02\/protests-swell-in-georgia-over-foreign-interests-bill\/"},"modified":"2024-05-02T12:03:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T12:03:57","slug":"protests-swell-in-georgia-over-foreign-interests-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/02\/protests-swell-in-georgia-over-foreign-interests-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests Swell in Georgia Over \u2018Foreign Interests\u2019 Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/02\/multimedia\/02georgia-protests-02-jkgv\/02georgia-protests-02-jkgv-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Protests Swell in Georgia Over \u2018Foreign Interests\u2019 Bill\" title=\"Protests Swell in Georgia Over \u2018Foreign Interests\u2019 Bill\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Security forces clashed with protesters in Georgia\u2019s capital on Wednesday night after the Eastern European nation\u2019s Parliament advanced controversial new legislation that has ignited weeks of demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the governing party, Georgian Dream, pushed a bill through Parliament early last month that the pro-Western opposition believes could be used to crack down on dissent and hamper the country\u2019s efforts to join the European Union, protesters have taken to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, night after night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their numbers swelled on Wednesday after Parliament approved the bill in the second of three required votes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/parliament.ge\/legislation\/28355\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">draft law<\/a> would require nongovernmental groups and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from foreign sources to register as organizations \u201ccarrying the interests of a foreign power\u201d and provide annual financial statements about their activities. Violations would incur hefty fines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It resembles a 2012 law in Russia that has been used to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/02\/world\/europe\/russia-foreign-agents-law.html\" title=\"\">stifle anti-Kremlin advocacy groups and media organizations<\/a>. Critics say that one aim of the new bill, which they call \u201cthe Russian law,\u201d is to align Georgia, a former Soviet country of 3.6 million, more closely with Moscow. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Georgian people want a European future for their country,\u201d she <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vonderleyen\/status\/1785739799401218537\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cGeorgia is at a crossroads. It should stay the course on the road to Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The government \u2014 which has been led by Georgian Dream since 2012 \u2014 says the bill is aimed at making foreign funding more transparent and was modeled on an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/nsd-fara\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">American law<\/a> dating to 1938 and other similar measures passed or proposed by other Western countries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It tried to pass the law last year but backed down in the face of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/08\/world\/europe\/georgia-protests-foreign-agents-law.html\" title=\"\">large-scale protests<\/a>. This time, the party appears determined to push it through Parliament, even though legislators will most likely have to override a veto by the country\u2019s president, Salome Zourabichvili.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Zourabichvili, whose duties are largely ceremonial in Georgia\u2019s parliamentary system, was endorsed by Georgian Dream when she was elected in 2018, but she has since become a fierce critic of the governing party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Marika Kochiashvili contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/02\/world\/europe\/georgia-protests.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Security forces clashed with protesters in Georgia\u2019s capital on Wednesday night after the Eastern European nation\u2019s Parliament advanced controversial new legislation that has ignited weeks of demonstrations. Since the governing party, Georgian Dream, pushed a bill through Parliament early last month that the pro-Western opposition believes could be used to crack down on dissent and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/02\/multimedia\/02georgia-protests-02-jkgv\/02georgia-protests-02-jkgv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[229,33,1873,13086,10452,24620],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41080,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41078\/revisions\/41080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}