Parliament official says “modern-world democracy built on transparency” after US Secretary of State comment on law

Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on Procedural Issues and Rules, on Tuesday said “modern-world democracy” was “built on transparency”, after the United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Monday noted his Government had “expressed concern about the law on Foreign Agents in Georgia”, taken “measures to express this concern”, and added “I think you will see more”.

Kadagishvili said the comments, on the controversial Georgian law on transparency of foreign influence that has been criticised by the country’s Western partners, were “mainly aimed at putting the domestic opposition on artificial respiration”.

We see that it is difficult for the world to make a specific decision about the law on the transparency of foreign influence. Why? There are two reasons. If we remove the propaganda slogan, it comes to the point that the world is against transparency. With such a simple transparency, which is probably at the level of the initial standards of all states and countries. [...] The transparency law is used as a tool of political pressure against Georgia, [that is why] such statements are made”, he claimed.

The law 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.