US lawmakers threaten sanctions over Georgia’s “foreign agents” bill

A bipartisan group of House members is warning that Congress could pass sanctions on Georgia if the former Soviet republic moves forward with its controversial "foreign agents" bill, per Axios.

The legislation has touched off mass protests in the country's capital, Tiblisi, with demonstrators decrying it as an infringement on free speech rights.

The bill, pushed by the governing Georgian Dream party, would require NGOs and media outlets that derive more than 20 per cent of their funding from international sources to register as "agents of foreign influence."

The bill, which closely mirrors a Russian law used to stifle opposition, has raised questions about the country's European Union candidacy.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) led a letter to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze voicing "grave concern" about the bill.

The letter was signed by 13 Democrats and 16 Republicans – an unusually bipartisan initiative in an often divided Congress.

"This bill is fundamentally at odds with your government's professed desire to further integrate into the transatlantic community," the lawmakers wrote to Kobakhidze.

They warned that the law "only enables Russia's malign influence to expand in Georgia."

The lawmakers warned that, if the bill is not withdrawn, they "would join our colleagues in the Senate in encouraging fundamental changes in U.S. policy toward Georgia."