About 50,000 opponents of a \u201cforeign agents\u201d bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the Georgian capital on Saturday, after the United States said the country had to choose between the \u201cKremlin-style\u201d law and the people\u2019s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia,\u201d White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan wrote on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cGeorgian parliamentarians face a critical choice \u2013 whether to support the Georgian people\u2019s Euro-Atlantic aspirations or pass a Kremlin-style foreign agents\u2019 law that runs counter to democratic values,\u201d he said. \u201cWe stand with the Georgian people.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bill, which would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as \u201cagents of foreign influence,\u201d has touched off a rolling political crisis in Georgia, where thousands have taken to the streets to demand the bill be withdrawn. <\/p>\n
The crowd on Saturday waved Georgian, European Union and some Ukrainian flags and in a break with the past, included more older protesters as well as the many young people who have thronged the streets over the past month. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe government should hear the free people of Georgia,\u201d said one protester in her 30s who gave her name as Nino, waved a large Georgian flag and led one of three columns that converged on the city center, which blocked many of the city\u2019s roads and filled the cobblestoned heart of Tbilisi\u2019s old town. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to enter the European Union with our proud nation and our dignity,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Anuki, a 22-year-old student of acting, said it was her generation\u2019s responsibility \u201cto make sure that our future and the future of generations after us are safe, that they have freedom of speech, and they are free, basically.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we don\u2019t want to be part of Russia,\u201d she added. \u201cWe never wanted to be part of Russia. And it has always been and always will be our goal to be part of Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n
Parliament, which is controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allies, will begin committee hearings on the bill\u2019s third and final reading on Monday. Opposition groups had called for a fresh wave of protests from Saturday. <\/p>\n
The crisis has pitted the Georgian Dream ruling party against a coalition of opposition parties, civil society, celebrities and the country\u2019s figurehead president, with mass demonstrations shutting down much of central Tbilisi almost nightly for more than a month. <\/p>\n
Georgian opponents of the bill have dubbed it \u201cthe Russian law,\u201d comparing it to legislation used to target critics of President Vladimir Putin\u2019s Kremlin. <\/p>\n
The European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December, has said that the bill will pose a serious obstacle to further integration if passed. <\/p>\n
Georgian Dream says the bill will promote transparency and Georgian national sovereignty. <\/p>\n
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgian Dream, has said the law is necessary to stop the West trying to use Georgians as \u201ccannon fodder\u201d in a confrontation with Russia. <\/p>\n
Sullivan said that Georgian Dream appeared to be deliberately trying to break with the West, even as both the ruling party and Georgian public opinion has traditionally been in favor of the country joining the EU and the US-led NATO military alliance. <\/p>\n
Sullivan wrote: \u201cGeorgian Dream\u2019s recent rhetoric, proposed legislative changes, and actions go against the aspirations of the Georgian people and are designed to isolate Georgians from the United States and Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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About 50,000 opponents of a \u201cforeign agents\u201d bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the Georgian capital on Saturday, after the United States said the country had to choose between the \u201cKremlin-style\u201d law and the people\u2019s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. \u201cWe are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia,\u201d White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan wrote on X. \u201cGeorgian parliamentarians face a critical choice \u2013 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}