MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Russia has no connection to the Georgian foreign agent bill that has caused protests in the country, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
"The Kremlin did not inspire anything and has absolutely nothing to do with this," he stressed.
Peskov pointed out that the United States was a pioneer in terms of such laws. "If we understand correctly, one of the versions of the [Georgian] bill was actually very similar to the US law on the matter. The second version did not resemble the US law so much and was much softer. However, we certainly have nothing to do with any of them," Peskov said.
He added that the unrest in Georgia was cause for concern. "It is our neighboring country after all, and although we don’t actually maintain relations with Georgia, we are certainly concerned about the situation there. It is definitely important to us that there is calm along our borders and of course, the current situation there leaves much to be desired," he noted.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on March 7-8 after lawmakers had passed the first reading of the Georgian version of a foreign agent bill. On March 9, the ruling party decided to withdraw the bill from parliament.