US ambassador says who votes for American version of law is against Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic course – ruling party MP

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the parliament, on Wednesday cited Kelly Degnan, the US ambassador to Georgia, as saying that “those who vote for any version of the foreign against bill, including the American version, is against Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration”. 

 

Mdinaradze’s comment came on the heels of ongoing controversies over the bill on foreign influence proposed by the People’s Power movement last month, which is composed by former members of the GD who still remain in the parliamentary majority. 

 

The movement that frequently criticizes the US and the west and accused them of taking actions to “drag Georgia into Russia-Ukraine conflict”, said the bill envisaged the registration of “non-commercial legal entities and media outlets as agents of foreign influence if they receive more than 20 percent of their income from abroad”.

 

Following the backlash from the international community and domestic NGOs, the movement claimed it presented two versions of the bill, “one based on the US law”, with both already sent to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for opinion. 

 

Mdinaradze, whose party backs the bill, said the American version was “far more strict unlike the loyal Georgian version” that “only obliges the entities to register for transparency” if they obtained more than 20 percent of their incomes from abroad. 

 

He and other members of the party also asked “if such a bill works in the US , why will it not work for Georgia?”. 

 

Degnan has already slammed the bills as “similar to Russian laws”, which were expected to create problems for the Geogians “who help other Geogians”.