On May 27, the Parliament of Georgia approved the controversial “foreign agents” law, sparking weeks of protests and a wave of international condemnation. With 84 votes in favor and 4 against, legislators passed the bill, ignoring President Salome Zurabishvili’s veto. This decision was made despite ongoing protests and warnings from the European Union and the United States that the measure compromises Georgia’s candidacy for the European Union.

For the October 26 elections, the law will have been in force for about two months, with various NGOs and media organizations involved in monitoring the vote already labeled as foreign agents or fined for failing to register.

“The European Union deeply regrets that the Parliament of Georgia has decided to override the presidential veto on the law on transparency of foreign influence.” Thus, in a joint statement by the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, the European Union condemns the approval of the law, considered pro-Russian, despite “a clear recommendation to reject it.”

The protests have been ongoing for more than a month now, and to many observers, they resemble Euromaidan: the pro-European protests that set the most famous square in the Ukrainian capital ablaze in 2013. Some analysts go so far as to suggest that the Georgian scenario resembles the Ukrainian one in many ways. If this is the case, the front with Russia risks expanding even further.

Written by: Nicola Frau