Thousands demonstrate against Georgia’s ‘foreign agent’ bill

• Parliament approved a contentious draught bill that opponents believe limits press freedom.
• Riot police dispersed the crowds outside the parliament building with water cannons and pepper spray.
• Several police officers were injured and police equipment was damaged.

Protesters battled with police in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, after parliament approved a contentious draught bill that opponents believe limits press freedom and suppress civil society.

Riot police dispersed the crowds outside the parliament building with water cannons and pepper spray.

Several demonstrators were spotted coughing and falling to the ground, while others waved EU and Georgian flags.

According to the administration, several police officers were injured and police equipment was damaged.

There has been strong international disapproval of the law, which would require non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and independent media who receive more than 20% of their money from overseas to register themselves as foreign agents.

The opposition characterized it as a Russian-style measure that would stigmatize and restrict Georgia’s robust civil society and independent media.

‘A terrible setback’

The planned law would be “a terrible setback,” according to US State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Mr. Price stated that the law “would strike at some of the core rights that are central to the aspirations of the people of Georgia,” and that the US was extremely concerned and troubled by it.

The new legislation is “incompatible with EU values and standards,” according to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Georgia’s application for EU candidate status is now being considered by Brussels.

In 2012, Russia established its own version of a “foreign agents” law, which has since been expanded to target and restrict Western-funded Organizations and media.

“The law is Russian as we all know… We don’t want to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union, we want to be a part of the European Union, we want to be pro-West,” one protester told.

Speaking via video during a visit to New York, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili voiced her support for the protesters: “I am by your side. Today you represent free Georgia. Georgia, which sees its future in Europe, will not allow anyone to take away this future.”

Inside the parliament building, however, 76 legislators from the ruling Georgian Dream party first supported the new “transparency of foreign interference” draught bill.

A committee hearing into the proposed law ended in a parliamentary brawl on Monday.

If the measure is passed, Georgia will join a litany of undemocratic and authoritarian post-Soviet governments that have replicated Russian legislation restricting the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

A dark day for Georgia’s democracy

In Russia and Georgia, the term “agent” has historically meant “spy” or “traitor,” lending a negative connotation to the activity of civil society. It implies that they are operating in the interests of foreign powers rather than in the interests of the country and community.

The US embassy issued a statement describing Tuesday’s vote as a “dark day for Georgia’s democracy”.

It added that parliament’s advancing “of these Kremlin-inspired laws was incompatible with the people of Georgia’s clear desire for European integration and its democratic development”.

The overtly anti-Western People’s Power movement, a close partner of the ruling Georgian Dream party, introduced the two proposals on “transparency of foreign agents” and “registration of foreign agents” in parliament.

The group has argued that the second bill was an exact analog of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Georgian Dream backed the draughts, claiming that such legislation was needed to increase openness.

At a conference on Tuesday evening, the head of the governing party, Irakli Kobakhidze, struck out the United States embassy’s statement, saying it was “a dark day for the radical opposition and its supporters”.

Most demonstrators and the country’s opposition worry that the law’s passage will put an end to Georgia’s long-held aspiration to join the EU.

More than 80% of Georgians favor the country’s European orientation, which is also inscribed in its constitution.

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