Johnny Melikyan: Georgia’s contraversial bill targets the political sector or media that are mostly anti-government 

Protests against the draft law on “foreign agents” have been staging for the second consecutive day in Georgia. Representatives of Georgian NGOs and mass media are protesting against the intention of the ruling party to adopt the Russian-style foreign agent bill. Expert on Georgian affairs Johnny Melikyan spoke about this with Alpha News.

“The bill is directed against the political sector or the media, which are mostly anti-government due to complex internal political processes. The draft law was suspended last year, and now, with minor changes, the ‘Georgian Dream’ ruling party is once again trying to pass this bill. In my opinion, the authorities will use this bill as leverage for internal political struggle in the future because, today, many media outlets express their opposition. Today there are quite active anti-government processes going on,” Melikyan said.

According to him, Georgia’s authorities are trying to use the register to create a counterargument so that they can introduce some clarification in their relations with the Western partners.

“They are trying to use the register as a counterargument before the upcoming election so that they can introduce some clarification in their relations with their Western partners and, in addition, have more negative or critical discussions with the public about opposition organizations and the media,” Melikyan concluded.