US Senator Jeanne Shaheen has said the foreign agents bills proposed by former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party were “not similar” to the related US Foreign Agents Registration Act and instead echoed the Russian law. 

In her interview for the Voice of America on Monday, the senator stressed adopting such a law could cause the same consequences in Georgia as in Russia -  “the disappearance of civil society and free media”. 

She explained the US law required the registration of the entities engaged in lobbying activities “that attempt to influence the US government in the interest of a foreign country”. 

“The Act does not say they [the entities] cannot work and continue lobbying. People just need to know who they are and who they work for. The same is true of media outlets, such as RT [formerly Rasha Today] or China TV, which are required to register so that viewers know who pays them and who they represent. As I understand, the draft laws in Georgia are not similar to FARA at all”, said the senator. 

Domestic Georgian NGOs claim the authors of the bill from the People’s Power movement - created last year by former GD members who still remain in the parliamentary majority - had “intentionally omitted a paragraph from the authentic American legislation” that allows the US president to provide a list of the country’s partner states that should not be referred as foreign agents.  

They said the omission of the clause in the Georgian bills created an “uniform approach to hostile and allied countries” and aimed at “stigmatizing and restriction” of domestic organizations being funded mostly on the western donation.