GEORGIA: Government’s “real purpose” not to ensure public transparency “but to exert control”

Despite massive protests, the ruling party’s Foreign Influence Transparency (Foreign Agent) came into force on 3 June. All civil society organisations (including most religious organisations) receiving more than a fifth of income from abroad must by September enter a range of information on a public register as an “organisation serving the interests of a foreign power”. Pastor Zaal Tkeshelashvili of the unregistered Evangelical Church likens the new Law to “the State installing surveillance cameras in every corner to control the religious or private lives of believers”.