According to the Spokesperson of the US Department of State, they are “closely monitor the ongoing protests and the developments in Georgia”.

“We’re continuing to closely monitor the ongoing protests and the developments on the ground. We urge the Government of Georgia to respect the freedom of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest. We urge all parties to exercise restraint and to avoid any escalatory or violent actions while respecting the rule of law and Georgia’s democratic values. We are, as we’ve said consistently in recent days, deeply troubled by the recently introduced draft foreign agent laws, which – if actually made law – would stigmatize and silence independent voices and citizens of Georgia who are dedicated to building a better future within their own communities.

Parliament’s advancing of these Kremlin-inspired draft laws is incompatible with the people of Georgia’s clear desire for European integration and its democratic development. Pursuing these laws, we believe, will damage Georgia’s relations with its strategic partners and jeopardizes Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic future. These are at the heart of the aspirations of the Georgian people, the project that the Georgian people have pursued over the course of decades now since Georgia’s independence. The United States has been a strategic partner to Georgia; Georgia has aspirations for fuller integration with Europe and the EU. All of those things are in play in the context of the debate that we see raging now in Tbilisi.

Again, we are standing with the people of Georgia and the aspirations that they have. It would be our hope that the Government of Georgia, as is our hope around the world – that governments reflect the aspirations of their own people. When it comes to what we’re seeing now, of course we always stand with the right of citizens around the world to exercise their universal rights. It is a universal right to freedom of assembly. It is a universal right to peaceful protest. It is a universal right to freedom of expression. We always stand with those who are peacefully exercising their universal rights.

Now, when it comes to this – these draft laws, this is ultimately a question for the Georgian Government. We have made our views on this very clear. We’ve made those views very clear as a partner to Georgia over the course of decades now, a partner that has helped usher Georgia from its immediate post-independent phase to its consolidation of its democracy, the development of its economy, its aspirations for greater integration in the Euro-Atlantic region. We want to be in a position to continue to do that.

Now, obviously there are a number of countries and entities around the world who share these concerns. We’ve heard from the EU. We’ve heard from the UN. But the voices that we are listening to most closely are those voices on the ground in Georgia. And we have heard strong protests and concern expressed on the part of Georgian civil society, of civil society groups, of independent actors who are in our view legitimately concerned that the passage and the ratification of these laws would hamper and hinder their ability to exercise the very universal rights that are at play in these protests”, - said Ned Price.