Justice Minister says about 500 organisations have applied for registration as “pursuing interests of foreign power”

Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Friday said about 500 applications had been submitted by organisations across the country to be included in the registry of entities “pursuing interests of a foreign power” under the controversial law adopted earlier this year.

The organisations meeting the criteria will be registered, while the entities that had failed to do so will be inspected and fined, Bregadze said.

About 500 applications have been received. At this stage, the relevant service of the National Public Registry Agency is working on these applications. The correctness of the completed applications is checked. Appropriate decisions will be made afterwards”, the Justice Minister said.

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.