U.S. deeply alarmed by Georgia's foreign agent bill, Sullivan says

The United States said on Saturday it was deeply alarmed by democratic backsliding in Georgia which Washington said had a choice to support either a "Kremlin-style" foreign agent bill or the people's Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

"We are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia," U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wrote on X.

"Georgian Parliamentarians face a critical choice - whether to support the Georgian people’s EuroAtlantic aspirations or pass a Kremlin-style foreign agents' law that runs counter to democratic values," he said. "We stand with the Georgian people."

The bill, which would require organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence", has touched off a rolling political crisis in Georgia, where thousands have taken to the streets to demand the bill be withdrawn.