Georgian Vice PM calls US visa restrictions “another mistake”

Tea Tsulukiani, the Georgian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, on Thursday said the United States’ decision to impose visa restrictions on members of the ruling Georgian Dream party following adoption of the domestic controversial law on transparency of foreign influence was “another mistake”.

Tsulukiani’s comments came after Matthew Miller, the Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, on Thursday announced the US Government had imposed visa restrictions on “dozens” of Georgian individuals in its first batch of sanctions.

“This is another mistake that, unfortunately for them and for us, the United States is making in its relations with a strategic partner. This is not the first mistake. Perhaps from this we should assume that other mistakes will be made [by the US]”, Tsulukiani said.

First of all, the United States needs to reset these relations [with Georgia]. We will wait for this day because we were and are committed to a strategic partnership. We have never rejected the United States and friendship with them, and moreover, this [the Georgian Dream] Government has not rejected it, and I emphasise that”, she noted.

The law on transparency of foreign influence requires registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

It was supported by 84 MPs in the 150-member Parliament, with 30 voting against, and requires the groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.