Georgia’s president has vetoed a “foreign agents” bill that has split the country and appealed to the government not to overrule her over a law she said was “Russian in sprit and essence”.
The legislation has brought hundreds of thousands of people out on to the streets of the capital Tbilisi who accuse the government of trying to smear dissenting voices as traitors.
The EU has said that the law will be an obstacle to the country’s accession to the bloc while the US has warned that the legislation and the government’s anti-western rhetoric is turning Georgia into an “adversary” and that it could pull billions in economic and military aid.
Under the Georgian constitution, a president has two weeks to either sign and promulgate the law or send an argued alternative back to the parliament in the form of “justified remarks.”
The prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has suggested he would open the law to amendments but opposition groups see that as a trap designed to take the energy out of the protests that have swelled Tbilisi’s streets in the last month.
Tina Bokuchava, leader of the parliamentary party of the main opposition, the United National Movement, said: “Young people, who have flooded the streets of our cities to protest in recent weeks, will applaud this decision, while also knowing the battle is not yet won.
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