The United States has expressed concern after Georgia's ruling party reintroduced a proposed "foreign agents" bill that critics say is aimed at crushing dissent and which sparked mass demonstrations last year, AFP reports.
"We are deeply troubled by the introduction into the Georgian parliament of legislation based on last year's 'foreign agents' bill," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
"The bill poses a threat to civil society organizations," he said. "It undermines Georgia's commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration."
The ruling Georgian Dream party said it would reintroduce the bill, which resembles Russia's "foreign agents" law used to silence dissent under President Vladimir Putin.
The proposal - condemned by the European Union, which Tbilisi is seeking to join - would target NGOs, media organisations and individual journalists who receive foreign funding.
According to Georgian Dream, these groups would have to register as "an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power".
The party abandoned the bill last year under pressure from tens of thousands of protesters in Tbilisi.
The move is likely to further fuel deep divisions in Georgia, whose leadership has been accused of retreating from democracy and following Moscow's authoritarian tendencies, undoing years of reforms aimed at bringing the country closer to the West. / BGNES
