What’s behind Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ protests?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2024
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Protesters are calling it the ‘Russian law’ – a bill in Georgia’s parliament that, if passed, would label any organization with over 20 percent foreign funding as a foreign agent. The bill has sparked widespread protests. Supporters say it protects Georgian sovereignty. How will it impact whether this small former Soviet republic leans toward Russia or toward the EU?
In this episode:
- Yulia Shapovalova (@Yulisha), Al Jazeera Correspondent
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan and Sarí el-Khalili with our host Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. Tabish Talib and Manahil Naveed fact-checked this episode.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, a fight for democracy in Georgia. |
| 0:15.0 | Massive crowds take to the streets of the Capitol to protest what they're calling the Russian law. |
| 0:23.6 | How will what's happening in this small, former Soviet republic decide whether it leans toward Russia or toward the EU? |
| 0:32.6 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is The Take. |
| 0:42.3 | My name is Yulia Shopavala. |
| 0:47.3 | I'm a Moscow correspondent for Old Jazeera English, and I work in Moscow, and sometimes I work in other countries like Georgia, for instance. |
| 0:59.6 | So this is a very tense moment for Georgia. |
| 1:04.1 | This weekend you had 50,000 people marching on a rainy Saturday, so that's no joke. |
| 1:09.8 | People are fired up. |
| 1:11.4 | This is the largest protest to Belisi has seen this year. |
| 1:15.1 | They have threatens to continue their demonstrations until their demands are met. |
| 1:19.3 | Now, the big picture framing of this conflict is EU versus Kremlin, |
| 1:24.7 | but these protesters are protesting against something specific, a piece of proposed legislation. |
| 1:32.0 | What is this legislation? |
| 1:34.3 | Well, the legislation which triggered such unprecedented process demands that media outlets and NGOs register as being under the foreign influence if they receive |
| 1:45.9 | more than 20% of their funding for abroad. |
| 1:48.9 | Thousands of people saying they don't want Parliament to adopt the so-called foreign |
| 1:53.2 | agents law. |
| 1:54.9 | The law is not new. |
| 1:56.4 | The governing Georgian Dream Party tried to pass it in March last year, but it also caused widespread |
| 2:03.0 | popular discontent. People hid the streets. So it was revoked back then and the protesters |
... |
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