“The Georgian Dream speculated that there were no legal arguments against the Transparency Law. OSCE/ODIHR opinion lists many such arguments and says that adopting such Transparency Law by the country, which aspires to become a member of the European family, is unacceptable,” said Paata Manjgaladze, the opposition Strategy Aghmashenebeli party member.

According to Paata Manjgaladze, the OSCE/ODIHR opinion reads the Georgian Transparency Law has nothing in common with democracy and contradicts European human rights standards.

“The OSCE/ODIHR opinion, which arrived based on our application, directly reads that this ‘Russian Law’ has nothing in common with democracy. Moreover, it contradicts European human rights standards. In the Opinion, all the GD’s arguments, as if their goal was transparency and nothing else, were invalidated. It explains in detail that this law, this Russian law, really has nothing to do with the American FARA or Australian law either.

It directly states that based on financial sources, declaring an individual as an agent or a person, being in another country’s service is not in line with European standards. It proposes putting security issues in relevant law instead of stigmatizing individuals.

The Georgian Dream speculated that there were no legal arguments against the Transparency Law. OSCE/ODIHR opinion lists many such arguments and says that adopting such Transparency Law by the country, which aspires to become a member of the European family, is unacceptable,” he said.