"The adoption of a law on foreign agents by countries won't it become, for example, an obstacle for these people to receive subsidies, aid and support within the framework of the EU?"
This is what the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, asked in her Telegram channel, commenting on the opinion of the European Commission that the adoption of the law on foreign agents will be an obstacle on Georgia's path to the EU.
"Let me remind you that foreign agent laws are similar in content, and in some cases much stricter, in more than 60 countries around the world, mostly in the “standard“ democracies. Everything started from them. For example, in the USA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) has been applied since 1938, in Australia - for the system of transparency of foreign influence, in Great Britain - for national security, in Israel - for the transparency of NGO funding, in France - to prevent foreign interference (a vote in the Senate is planned in the near future)", wrote Zakharova.
And he continues: "In most cases, it is not so much about regulatory normative acts as about repressive instruments. In the same states for non-compliance with “FARA“ you can easily go to jail. Maria Butina wrote a whole book about these fascinating manifestations of neoliberal democracy. I recommend reading it.
The EU itself, in its usual state of chronic bipolar disorder, plans to pass its own version of foreign agent legislation - the “Democracy Protection Package”. In some elements, still in draft regulation, it appears even stricter than its American ancestor.
I wonder when this document comes to pass, will the EU start to exclude itself from membership? I even came up with a name for him - postmodern bipolar.
Sergei Lavrov's right-hand man also commented on the words of the deputy head of the press service of the US State Department, Vedant Patel, who stated:
„We have made it clear that the Georgian Parliament's passage of the Foreign Agents Act is not only inconsistent with the values of the United States, but also inconsistent with the aspirations of the Georgian people. The government of Georgia must change course".
To the above, Zakharova reacted as follows:
"I would like to ask a few clarifying questions:
1. The problem is that Georgian law is much more lenient than American law?
2. Why should Georgia or any other country consider other people's values?
3. “The values“ of the United States do not include non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries?", asked the official representative of the Russian MFA.