US warns Georgia not to side with Russia against the west

Crackdown on protests in ex-Soviet state over 'Kremlin-inspired' law

- Daniel Boffey

Georgia was warned by the United States government yesterday not to become an adversary of the west by falling back in line with Moscow as its parliament defied mass street protests to pass "Kremlin-inspired" legislation.

The US assistant secretary of state Jim O'Brien spoke of his fears that the passing by Georgia's parliament of a "foreign agents" bill yesterday could be yet another "turning point" in the former Soviet state's troubled history.

In comments that appeared to signal a conviction in Washington that the Georgian government was once again aligning with Russia, O'Brien suggested US funding could soon be pulled.

Billions of dollars had been spent by the US on rebuilding Georgia after the fall of the Soviet Union and hundreds of millions more were planned for the country's economy and military, he said. "All that has to be under review if we are now regarded as an adversary and not a partner," O'Brien told reporters at a press conference in Tbilisi.

The US official was speaking as the controversial "foreign agents" bill was backed by 84 MPs to 30 in defiance of demonstrations that have brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets of Tbilisi. Outside the parliament building, masked riot police used teargas in a vain attempt to disperse one of the largest protests seen so far while inside MPs brawled over the country's future.

Under the law adopted yesterday, media or civil society groups in Georgia that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad will have to register as "organisations serving the interests of a foreign power".

The US state department has labelled the bill "Kremlininspired", as it has echoes of legislation introduced into the Russian statute books in 2012 by Vladimir Putin, which many people say has been used to silence critics.