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full screen One of many demonstrations in Tbilisi against the new law. Picture from last week. Photo: Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP/TT
Georgia’s controversial “agent law” has now come into effect. This was announced by Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, whose signature was the last formal measure before the law comes into effect.
However, it does not immediately have any consequences, as the authorities do not yet have any lists of which organizations are covered. The law stipulates that organizations that receive at least a fifth of their money from abroad are registered as “foreign interests”.
Tens of thousands of Georgians have been demonstrating against the new rules for a long time. They are seen as a step away from the EU and closer to Russia, as the law is a copy of an authoritarian Russian regulatory framework.