Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced a measure that will directly affect certain Georgian citizens. The US will begin restricting their visas in response to their connection with the country’s so-called foreign agent bill. The Prime Minister called it blackmail.
It will also limit their ability to become part of the EU and NATO. Did you know they were thinking of bringing another country without money or a military bordering Russia into NATO? Why are we surrounding Russia and with countries that bring nothing to the table?
Oh, by the way, our borders are open.
The law resembles our US Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA). Blinken doesn’t want them to pass it. The Georgian President vetoed it, but the Parliament wants to override it. Russia said it’s Georgia’s domestic issue, and they won’t interfere.
The law requires non-profit organizations, media outlets, and individuals who receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities “promoting the interests of a foreign power.”
Whatever Would Soros NGOs Do?
The bill requires entities receiving foreign funds to disclose their financial sources abroad publicly. Blinken claims it will restrict freedom of expression. It would restrict US NGOs like Soros’s groups. NGOs have been accused of trying to start a color revolution in the country.
According to Blinken, the legislation, which has sparked mass protests, “would stifle the exercise of freedoms of association and expression,” stigmatize numerous organizations, and impede the work of media outlets. He also said the bill “run[s] contrary to Georgia’s long-stated goal… of Euro-Atlantic integration and strategic partnership with the United States.”
“In response to these actions, the Department of State is implementing a new visa restriction policy for Georgia that will apply to individuals who are responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia, as well as their family members,” Blinken said.
Blackmail?
He said it undermines democracy, and those who support it “may be found ineligible for US visas” and precluded from travel to the US. He noted that the same restrictions could apply to the immediate family members of those individuals, specifically members of the Georgia Dream Party. The Dream Party also doesn’t want LGBT propaganda spread around by NGOs.
The Dream Party said the US is “blackmailing” them.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused the EU of threatening him with the fate of Slovak leader Robert Fico, which he has walked back.
The secretary also announced “a comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation between the United States and Georgia” and expressed hope that officials in Tbilisi would eventually scrap the bill.
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