“It is a Russian law. It is an exact duplicate of the Putin law that was adopted a few years ago and then complemented in order to crush civil society,” Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s president and a longstanding opponent of Georgian Dream, told CNN, Paralel.Az reports.

Zourabichvili suggested that the law is intended to derail the country’s bid to join the European Union, after it was granted candidate status in December.

“Russia now is starting its hybrid strategy, it’s reinvigorating it, and it’s trying to stop us on that road – helped, obviously, by the authorities today,” she said.

Zourabichvili intends to veto the law, but conceded that her powers are mostly symbolic. Her veto could be overridden by the government’s parliamentary majority.