The Georgian parliament rejected the law on "foreign agents of influence" in a special session on Friday. In doing so, the ruling Georgian Dream party has met the demand of the protesters who had gathered in front of parliament every evening since the law was adopted on Tuesday in the first reading. Also during the meeting on Friday there were demonstrations in front of the building. The organizers of the protests wanted to ensure that the announced decision was actually taken.

Reinhard Veser

Editor in politics.

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When the ruling party announced on Thursday morning that it was abandoning the bill under the impression of the protests and sharp international criticism, it initially did not say how and when this would formally happen. Since the Georgian Dream has already broken agreements with the opposition several times, this behavior strengthened the already great mistrust of the government's opponents. Only during further protests on Thursday evening did the ruling party announce the special session of parliament for Friday. Unlike on previous days, the security forces did not violently crack down on the demonstration on Thursday.

The leader of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobachidze, reaffirmed on Friday after the vote in parliament that the now abandoned law was necessary. The very existence of the bill has made visible that some NGOs are "foreign agents of influence" who insult the church and engage in LGBT propaganda, Kobachidze said. The bill stipulated that media outlets and non-governmental organizations that receive more than twenty percent of their funding from abroad should register with the Ministry of Justice as "foreign agents of influence."

In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that the protests against what the protesters described as a "Russian law" were a Western-orchestrated attempt at a violent change of power. The head of the Russian propaganda channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on Twitter that the purpose of the protests was to open a "second front" against Russia. She threatened Georgia that in this case, unlike during the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, "no one would be squeamish and send troops there, but would immediately hit Tbilisi."