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Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has vetoed the legislation, but parliament is likely to override her decision

During an interview with DW News in May 2022, Zourabichvili stated that Georgia was in full compliance with the international financial sanctions on Russia and wanted a "quicker and shorter path towards integration" into NATO and the EU. She remarked that both France under Macron and Germany under Scholz had shifted their stance which ante-dated the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War and now embraced expansionary policies.^[32]

The bloc is trying to intimidate Georgia over its foreign agents law, Irakli Kobakhidze has said

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has claimed that a European commissioner told him he could end up suffering the same fate as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt last week.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Kobakhidze said that the unnamed commissioner warned him during a recent phone call that the West would take "a number of measures" against him if his government pressed ahead with a law requiring foreign NGOs in Georgia to disclose their funding.

"While listing these measures, he mentioned: 'you see what happened to Fico, and you should be very careful'," he wrote.

Fico was shot multiple times as he met with supporters outside a government meeting in the town of Handlova on May 15. He was rushed to hospital, underwent emergency surgery, and is currently recuperating from his injuries. His would-be assassin - a 71-year-old poet who allegedly disagreed with Fico's suspension of military aid to Ukraine - has been charged with attempted murder.

Georgia's parliament passed the 'Transparency of Foreign Influence Act' last week. The law requires NGOs, media outlets, and individuals receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities "promoting the interests of a foreign power" and disclose their donors.

While the act has been vetoed by Georgia's pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, parliament is expected to override the veto.

Despite similar yet more stringent foreign influence laws existing in the US, UK, and other Western nations, Georgia's foreign agent law has been strongly condemned by US and EU officials, with Washington considering unspecified "actions" against Tbilisi and multiple EU members weighing sanctions, according to media reports.

"We have long been accustomed to this kind of insulting blackmail," Kobakhidze wrote. "The parallel drawn with the attempted assassination of Robert Fico reminds us that in the form of the Global War Party, we are dealing with an extremely dangerous force that will do anything to bring chaos to Georgia."

In an interview with Georgia's Channel 1 on Wednesday, Kobakhidze argued that without a transparency law, foreign-funded NGOs operating in the country could easily foment a revolution akin to the US-backed 'Maidan' coup in Ukraine in 2014. "We want transparency... we don't want to leave muddy water in this country, because a 'Georgian Maidan' could lead our country to very serious consequences, to its 'Ukrainization'. We cannot agree with this," he said.

Western officials claim that Georgia's crackdown on foreign influence "undermines democracy"

The US is looking into how it could punish Georgia over a 'foreign agents' bill which was recently passed in the country's parliament, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Georgia's Transparency of Foreign Influence Act would require non-profit organizations, media outlets, and individuals which derive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities "promoting the interests of a foreign power" and disclose their income and sponsors or face fines of up to $9,500.

The legislation ignited weeks of violent protests and clashes across the country, which is an applicant to both the EU and NATO.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the bill on Friday, but the gesture is considered to be largely symbolic, as the Georgian Dream party has a majority in parliament and is expected to overrule it.

"We are looking very hard at what we can do in response to that, and I anticipate we will take actions, the EU is looking at the impact on the accession process for Georgia, so I would anticipate that there will be things to come because of the impact this law may have," Blinken told US lawmakers in Congress.

Blinken said the US is "very concerned" about the legislation, which he described as "right out of Moscow's playbook," and which "clearly counters" the Georgian public's desire for "EU integration."

Despite criticism that the legislation could be used to target the political opposition, the bill does not provide for criminal prosecutions, unlike the US' Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which has been in effect since the 1930s.

The bill was described as "undermining of democracy" by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien on a visit to Tbilisi last week. He warned Georgia of "restrictions coming from the US," and potential sanctions on lawmakers that were involved with the legislation.

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