Foreign forces are trying to carry out a coup in Georgia, the general said secretary of the ruling party "Georgian Dream", the mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze, reported RIA Novosti.
„There are attempts from outside for a coup, for a revolution in the country. An example of this is that foreigners directly came to the rally... This is not friendship, this is hostility and an attempt to polarize the country. How do you imagine our Minister of Foreign Affairs in Yerevan and what will be the attitude towards us?
Earlier on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Estonia and Iceland came to Tbilisi's Rustaveli Boulevard for a rally against the law on foreign agents, addressing the demonstrators and supporting them.
On May 14, the Parliament of Georgia passed the third and final reading of the bill on foreign agents.
In April, the ruling Georgian Dream party again introduced the bill on foreign agents to parliament. In the bill “On the transparency of foreign influence” instead of the term “agent of foreign influence” the term “organization protecting the interests of a foreign power” is used, and the rest of the content of the bill remains the same.
The draft law provides for the registration of non-profit legal entities and media whose revenues exceed 20% from abroad. According to the draft, anyone considered an "organization protecting the interests of foreign powers" must be registered in a state register. During registration, it will be necessary to reflect the received income, as well as to fill out a declaration. Refusal to register or fill out a declaration will be punished with a fine of 25 thousand GEL (about 9.5 thousand dollars).
Opponents of the project call it an analogue of the corresponding Russian law. Georgian authorities claim that the law fully complies with all basic legal principles and serves only the purpose of annual disclosure of the finances of non-governmental organizations and related media.