The purpose of this document is to provide information to the public regarding the several repressive mechanisms enshrined in Russian Law. The issues covered in the document are not exhaustive and/or do not represent a list of all the major challenges.
The primary targets of the law are non-entrepreneurial non-commercial legal entities and (Internet) media outlets. However, the obligations and repressive measures enshrined in the law might be applied to other natural and legal persons (companies/institutions); (for instance see Article 4(4), Article 6(1), Article 8(3), Article 9(4)). Simply said, various aspects of law affect the entire society.
Article 10 of the law establishes transitional provisions, which retroactively extend the obligation to register and require non-governmental or media organizations to register as an implementing organization of foreign power interests within 3 months from the full enactment of the law. Out of these three months, 2 months will be given to the Ministry of Justice to carry out material, technical, and legal work, including creating a portal where information will be published on entities considered to be implementing organizations of foreign power interests, and 1 month will be given to relevant organizations to submit an application.
In 3 months after the entry into force of the law, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia will have a full material and formal legal possibility to carry out repressive measures.
The target organizations are required to submit an application for registration as an implementing organization of foreign power interests and to submit a statement, which is also a financial declaration.
If the law is finally adopted at the end of May, in July the Ministry of Justice completes the preparation of the legal and material basis for the implementation of the law. The organization is required between 1-31 August to submit an application acknowledging that it is an implementing organization of foreign power interests.
Within 2 working days after submission of the application (3(1)) in written, material form, the person will be provided with technical access to the electronic portal, where it is required to submit the information requested by the Minister of Justice within 10 working days; An exhaustive list of this information is not specified by the law, but this information should include financial information.
According to the 1st paragraph of Article 8 of the Law, to identify the implementing organization of foreign power interests or verify compliance with any of the requirements of this law, the authorized official by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia has the right to carry out monitoring – an appropriate examination and study of the issue at any time. Monitoring can be started both at the Ministry's initiative and at a third party's request.
1. the decision of the authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia;
or
2. A written statement submitted to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, which contains appropriate information related to a specific organization implementing foreign power interests.
The law does not define what is meant by appropriate information. Accordingly, an application submitted by any person, without indicating any justification/source of information, can be the basis for starting monitoring.
The same subject can be monitored only once in 6 months. However, the monitoring started against one organization can affect any other organization or natural and legal person, by establishing the obligation to provide information.
According to the first paragraph of Article 8 of the Law, monitoring can be carried out:
1. 1. to identify the organization carrying out the interests of a foreign power;
or
2. 2. To verify compliance with any legal requirement.
The law does not specify which requirements can be examined through monitoring. Therefore, taking into account the existing broad reference, the verification of the fulfillment of any requirement stipulated by the law can become the basis for the initiation of monitoring. At the same time, monitoring may also be carried out in those organizations that will have registered as an implementing organization of foreign power interests.
In order to carry out monitoring, the authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia has the right, in accordance with the law, to seek the necessary information, including the personal data provided for in subsection "b" of Article 3 of the Law of Georgia "On Personal Data Protection" (special category data), other personal data and confidential information ( except for state secrets as prescribed by Georgian legislation) containing information, for example, tax, banking, commercial information. According to the Law of Georgia "On Personal Data Protection", special categories of data include a wide list of sensitive data, including data related to an individual's state of health, sex life, the status of an accused, convicted, or acquitted person or a victim in criminal proceedings, conviction, criminal record, diversion, recognition as a victim of trafficking in human beings or of a crime under the Law of Georgia on the Elimination of Violence against Women and/or Domestic Violence, and the Protection and Support of Victims of Such Violence, detention, and enforcement of his/her sentence, or his/her biometric and genetic data, which are processed for the purpose of unique identification of a natural person.
Based on paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the Law, all those persons, bodies, organizations, and entities, to whom the official authorized by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia requests to submit information (see section 4.3. of this document), are obliged to present the information in their possession immediately.
Upon the request of the Ministry of Justice, the obligation to provide information can be imposed on any natural and legal person, including those who are not employed in the organization that is being monitored (see section 5.2 of this document). International funds operating in Georgia, representatives of international organizations, or persons employed by them may be subject to the request for immediate submission of information by the Ministry of Justice.
If the monitoring reveals that the targeted organization fulfills the criteria of an implementing organization of foreign power interests established by the law and it will be considered that it has avoided registration:
Based on a request of an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, the Agency shall register the entity as an implementing organization of foreign power interests;
The entity is obliged to fill out and submit the application, within 10 working days, to the Agency;
Compulsory registration of the entity by the Agency does not exempt the relevant subject from the responsibility to pay the fine;
If the organization does not fill out and submit the application within 10 working days, it will be charged an additional fine.
Information on fines is available in Section 6 of this document.
According to the law, only those organizations, whose more than 20% of gross revenue (of total noncommercial revenue in relation to media) received in a calendar year comes from a foreign power, are subject to registration. However, this does not mean that the repressive mechanisms provided by the law do not apply to persons who do not receive funding from abroad. From this point of view, two main repressive mechanisms can be distinguished, which can be used against all individuals and legal entities.
According to the law, the target subjects are non-commercial legal entities, broadcasters, mass information print media, and Internet outlets disseminating mass information, and the main criterion for considering them as an implementing organization of foreign power interests is 20% of the gross revenue (in the case of the media, of the total non-commercial revenue) received during the calendar year from abroad.
As mentioned above, one of the purposes of monitoring is to identify an implementing organization of foreign power interests, and for this purpose, any target entity can be monitored, regardless of the origin of the funding it receives. Accordingly, entities that do not receive funding from foreign sources at all may be subject to both monitoring and the consequences that accompany this process.
According to the law, all persons, bodies, organizations, and entities requested by the authorized official of the Ministry of Justice to provide the information in their possession must present it immediately. The authorized official of the Ministry of Justice has the power to request information, including for the purposes of monitoring. The legal provision defining the authority to carry out monitoring will come into effect on the 60th day after the publication of the law.
According to the provision of the law, within the framework of the monitoring started against this or that target entity, the Ministry of Justice is authorized to impose the obligation to provide information to any person, including natural persons. The law does not provide for any restrictions in this regard. Among the persons who may be required to submit information may be employees of the organization, beneficiaries of the target organization, employees of other partner organizations, donor organizations/funds/representations, etc.
If, as a result of monitoring, the Ministry of Justice identifies a person who, despite the prerequisites provided by the law, fails to submit to the Agency with an "application", it will be fined 25,000 GEL (paragraph 1 of Article 9).
The fined organization will be entered into the register compulsorily and it will be required (to submit an application to the Agency within 10 days), the application also constitutes a financial declaration.
Note: based on monitoring, compulsory registration in the register does not exempt the relevant entity from the obligation to pay a fine of 25,000 GEL.
If the organization does not submit an application after the compulsory registration in the register, it will be charged an additional fine of 10,000 GEL; (paragraph 5 of Article 8 and paragraph 2 of Article 9);
After being fined 10,000 GEL, commission of an act in the following months (e.g. failure to submit an application) will result in a monthly fine of 20,000 GEL; (paragraph 3 of Article 9).
According to Article 8(3) of the Law, All persons, bodies, organizations, and entities requested by the authorized official to provide the information (special category data, other personal data, and confidential information) in their possession must present it immediately.
A fine of 5,000 GEL is established for failure to provide the information requested by an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia in accordance with the law.
Considering the fact that the law enshrines the obligation to immediately provide the requested information to all those persons, bodies, organizations, and entities to which the authorized official by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia requests information, a fine of 5,000 GEL can be imposed to natural persons and it is not limited only to persons employed in the organization.
Decisions made by the Ministry of Justice, be it the initiation of monitoring, requests for information, imposing fines, or any other repressive measures, will not be stopped by a court appeal. The Ministry will be able to implement these measures without any impediment.
According to Article 9(8) of the Law, the appeal of a legal act issued on the basis of this law and/or on the basis of a subordinate normative act provided for by this law does not stop its operation.
Even in the case of registration and submission of the application, there is a risk of being requested to submit information and imposing a fine (for example, in case of finding a fault in the submitted application, in case of failure to correct the fault, in case of failure to submit the requested information). At the same time, in order to verify the correctness and/or completeness of the submitted declaration, the Ministry of Justice is authorized to initiate monitoring.
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