Ruling party Executive Secretary claims Shame movement “could not withstand bullying” before withdrawing registration as organisation “pursuing interests of foreign power”

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday claimed the civil movement Shame had “admitted there was no mention of agents or similar approaches” in the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence by registering under it  before withdrawing their registration as an organisation “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” due to “bullying”.

Mdinaradze’s comments followed the movement’s decision to revoke their registration at the National Agency of Public Registry of the Justice Ministry of Georgia against the backdrop of their supporters’ objection after they announced last week that they had registered themselves in the database under the controversial law.

It was a fraud of the century, which lasted for two years, that was called ‘No to Russian Law’. It was a staged, large-scale special operation, a performance directed against transparency, Georgian state and statehood”, he claimed in reference to public protests organised against the Transparency law.

The GD official also commented on four outstanding lawsuits against the law by saying lawyers of the Georgian Parliament’s Legal Committee had “won” the  ongoing hearings “in all components against the complainant parties at a “highly professional level”.

The law, passed by the Parliament in May, requires non-commercial entities and media outlets in the country to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

The lawsuits against it include submissions by President Salome Zourabichvili, 112 non-governmental organisations and media organisations, 38 opposition MPs, and two additional media groups.

They argue the law infringes on rights to personal development, privacy, and freedom of information and conflicts with Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration goals.