Tbilisi: The Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze who is also the secretary general of the ruling party once again slammed the President. He criticized the President for filing a lawsuit in the constitutional court against foreign agent laws.
According to the Secretary-General it is ironic that the President filed suit in the same institution that she used to criticize. Notably last year the Constitution Court blamed the President for violating the constitution. According to the decision of the Constitutional Court the President violated the Constitution when she went on a foreign visit without the required permission of the court.
It is very illogical and beyond belief that a person approaches the same institution that accused her of violating the country’s constitutions. It is worth mentioning that the president has filed a lawsuit to repeal the foreign agent law. The law was implemented this year amid large-scale protests across the country.
Speaking further on the issue he added that it is unfortunate that people are demanding the law introduced to be transparent in foreign funding. The law’s only aim was to close the loopholes used by these institutions and organizations to criticize government policies without any solid proof.
It is also very important to remember that Irakli Kobakhidze the Prime Minister of Georgia has also defended the decision to adopt foreign agent law. According to the Prime Minister there is no alternative to transparency. Any person receiving funding from a country has an obligation to disclose the exact source while under foreign agent law.
A nationwide transparency law requires the registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country. Moreover these organizations will be registered as institutions pursuing the interests of a foreign power if they receive more than twenty percent of their funding from a foreign country.
There were large-scale protests against the foreign agent law. Protestors call it Russian law and accuse the government of stifling independent media voices. The police crackdown against the protestors was strongly criticized by many countries for violating the fundamental right to protest of citizens.
