The US is reportedly set to consider offering a substantial economic and security package to Georgia if the country withdraws the draft foreign agent law. The parliament on Monday announced that it would overrule the veto of the foreign agent law in next week’s plenary session.

Read more:

• Podcast | Georgia’s foreign agent law passes — what’s next?
• Georgian parliament adopts foreign agent law 
• Government critics attacked outside their homes in Georgia
• Ivanishvili touts conspiracy theories at massive pro-government rally in Tbilisi
• Georgian Dream eliminates taxes on offshore assets brought to Georgia 
• Explainer | Why is Georgian Dream reviving the foreign agent law?

We’re ending our coverage for today.

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German Ambassador: Germany will not support Georgia’s accession talks if law is adopted in ‘current form’

Germany’s Ambassador to Georgia, Peter Fischer, has criticised the foreign agent law as ‘falling outside’ the EU’s standards. 

He warned that Berlin would not support Georgia’s accession talks with the EU if the ruling party adopted the law.

Week of student protest continues

Students are marching from Georgia’s parliament to Vake Park, marking the second day of a week-long student protest. In Vake, the demonstrators will call on businesses to join them and go on strike against the government, activist Zviad Tsetskhladze told Formula.

Three protesters fined $800 each for disobeying police

Tbilisi City Court has found three protesters guilty of petty hooliganism and disobeying police at demonstrations against the foreign agent law. Imeda Kldiashvili was fined ₾2200 ($800), Zviad Dalakishvili, ₾2300 ($840) and Tornike Ketelauri, ₾2200 ($800), Formula reported.

According to the outlet, consideration of other cases against protesters has been postponed, but did not specify the number of cases that this applies to and how long they have been postponed. 

Formula reported that all three detainees claim the Ministry of Internal Affairs failed to present evidence against them. Lawyers and detainees claim that the decisions made by the court are politically motivated.

Mdinaradze: US providing a ‘lifeline for the opposition’

Georgian Dream’s parliamentary leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, has claimed US Congressman Joe Wilson’s proposed MEGOBARI act ‘contains both a threat and a trade with the country on its sovereignty’.

‘Actually, the purpose of this test initiative is to rekindle the extinguished protest charge. It is a new lifeline for the collapsed opposition. We also see their corresponding, hysterical reactions’, Mdinaradze wrote on Facebook.

‘Strategic partnership and friendship would mean that visa-free travel, free economic relations, and direct flights are opened without any trade and threats, which was our repeated call!’

POLITICO reports that the US draft legislation would offer a trade and security package from the US if the foreign agent law is withdrawn, while putting forward sanctions against the Georgian government if its veto is overturned next week, as the ruling Georgian Dream party has promised. 

The ‘MEGOBARI Act’ [მეგობარი — friend in Georgian] would ease visa restrictions on Georgians visiting the US, as well as providing ‘a robust preferential trade regime’ and improved military support to the country. Such measures would be dependent on withdrawing the law and showing ‘significant and sustained progress’ towards ensuring ‘fair and free’ elections and a robust democratic environment. 

Protesters fined for blocking roads

At least four demonstrators were on Monday each fined ₾500 ($180) for illegally blocking roads while protesting the foreign agent law, RFE/RL reported.

Those fined told the outlet that footage used to support the cases against them did not show them blocking the roads, with one seen crossing a road and another not visible in the footage at all. Those fined included activists Saba Shvitaridze and Lazare Ordenidze, and opposition party members Anri Gorgiladze, of Droa, and Boris Chele Kurua, of Girchi — More Freedom. All three were given the maximum fine for the charge of illegally blocking a road. 

Local media reported on Monday that 54 trials were scheduled against demonstrators accused of illegally blocking roads in protest against the foreign agent law, but some have been postponed.

Georgian Dream: Georgia-US relations depend entirely on US actions within one year

The ruling Georgian Dream party’s political council has stated that improvements in Georgian-American relations depend on the actions of the US, responding to reports by POLITICO and The Hill that Washington may propose both economic and security benefits and sanctions, including visa liberalisation, to incentivise the Georgian government to drop the foreign agent law. 

‘For us, this law is not an object of trade but an effective means to defend Georgia’s sovereignty, and we cannot, under any circumstances, trade on the country’s sovereignty’, the statement reads.

It added that if the US had a ‘decent attitude’ towards Georgia, it would grant visa liberalisation to Georgian citizens without any conditions. The draft legislation expected to be tabled this week reportedly hinges on visa liberalisation on the withdrawal of the foreign agent law. 

The statement affirmed that there was at present ‘no alternative’ to the foreign agent law’s adoption, repeating a claim that ‘NGOs have attempted twice to spark a revolution in Georgia’ since November 2020, adding that they ‘we cannot idle away in anticipation of a third attempt’. 

However, the ruling party also suggested that given certain actions from the US, ‘the law on the transparency of NGOs becomes unnecessary’. These actions included US investment in Georgia, ‘ensured behaviour change among NGOs’, and opening EU accession negotiations with Georgia instead of using EU membership as ‘a tool for constantly blackmailing Georgia’.

The American bill makes it clear that the US could have done this before, nonetheless exhibiting indifference toward the Georgian people instead’.

The party stressed that ‘our partners can put our relations in qualitative order in a matter of one year at most’.

POLITICO reports that the US draft legislation would offer a trade and security package from the US if the foreign agent law is withdrawn, while putting forward sanctions against the Georgian government if its veto is overturned next week, as the ruling Georgian Dream party has promised. 

The ‘MEGOBARI Act’ [მეგობარი — friend in Georgian] would ease visa restrictions on Georgians visiting the US, as well as providing ‘a robust preferential trade regime’ and improved military support to the country. Such measures would be dependent on withdrawing the law and showing ‘significant and sustained progress’ towards ensuring ‘fair and free’ elections and a robust democratic environment. 

Foreign agent law sent to Legal Affairs Committee

Local media has reported that yesterday the foreign agent law vetoed by President Salome Zourabichvili was sent to the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee for consideration. It is unclear when the Committee will discuss the president’s suggested amendments. 

Parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili announced on Monday that the ruling Georgian Dream party intends to overrule the President’s veto on the foreign agent law during a plenary session next week.

Girchi leader questioned by police

Zurab Japaridze, the leader of the opposition Girchi — More Freedom party, was on Monday questioned by the criminal police in Tbilisi City Court with a judge present. 

Japaridze stated that he did not rule out his future arrest. 

Speaking to journalists, Japaridze said that it appeared that the intention was to accuse him of being ‘the organiser of something violent’. He also claimed that the Interior Ministry had during the questioning presented recordings by the State Security Service, but did not state the form of the footage or what it included. 

‘Those recordings were made two years ago or more. They are connecting these [recordings] with these demonstrations [against the foreign agent law]’, he said.

Japaridze confirmed that the recordings were in fact of him.

‘It might have been edited, but the content was mostly the same: I said how a protest can arise’, said Japaridze. ‘But it has nothing to do with these protests.’

Katsarava: after beating me, police sent my photos to their ‘clients’

A week after being hospitalised following his arrest at an anti-foreign agent law protest, nationalist activist Davit Katsarava has written about his detention by police. 

Katsarava writes that following his arrest, he was repeatedly beaten by riot police.

‘Fiercely and deliberately, aiming at [my] head and face’, wrote Katsarava. ‘At the end I heard one of the executioners scream in my ear - kill him’.

He adds during one beating, he had his arms tied behind his back for half an hour as police beat him and choked him. 

He also writes that after his beating, his photographs were sent to their ‘clients’. 

Katsarava was discharged from the Ingorokva clinic on Monday, with visible injuries on his face and neck. He promised to return to street protests as soon as he was able to do so. 

US Congress to consider sanctions and visa liberalisation for Georgia 

US Congressman Joe Wilson is set to this week table draft legislation that would offer a trade and security package if the foreign agent law is withdrawn, while putting forward sanctions against the Georgian government if its veto is overturned next week, as the ruling Georgian Dream party has promised.

POLITICO reports that the ‘MEGOBARI Act’ [მეგობარი — friend in Georgian] would ease visa restrictions on Georgians visiting the US, as well as providing ‘a robust preferential trade regime’ and improved military support to the country. Such measures would be dependent on withdrawing the law and showing ‘significant and sustained progress’ towards ensuring ‘fair and free’ elections and a robust democratic environment. 

In an interview with The Hill, Wilson stated that the bill calls for identifying individuals for visa bans and sanctions, as well as reports to Congress on ‘nodes of improper influence, kleptocracy, and elite corruption’ in Georgia. It also calls for the US President's administration to report on Russian intelligence, Chinese influence, and ‘malign’ Chinese-Russian collaboration in the country, as well as on whether individuals have evaded international sanctions on Russia. 

‘The situation in Georgia is heartbreaking. The Georgian people are an embodiment of freedom and continue to inspire Americans’, Wilson told The Hill.

Yesterday Politico reported that the US Congress could move to sanction Georgian officials and law enforcement and security figures, citing a leaked draft bill. 

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien last week warned that the US could sanction officials in Georgia over the foreign agent law.

Key events from yesterday

• Parliament announced it would overrule President Salome Zourabichvili’s veto of the foreign agent law next week.
• Parliament’s Finance Committee has rejected Zourabichvili’s veto of amendments to the tax code that would exempt offshore assets from being taxed in Georgia.
• Georgian Dream has introduced new amendments to the electoral code that would allow the Central Election Commission to issue rulings and decisions with a simple majority instead of with the support of two thirds of its members.
• Politico has reported that US Congresspeople are preparing a draft sanctioning government officials and law enforcement figures.
• Demonstrations against the foreign agent law have continued, with students and school leavers protesting outside the Ministry of Education on Monday night.