The Parliament of Georgia has voted through the controversial law on Wednesday. In Tbilisi, large crowds demonstrate against the elected officials’ decision.
Thursday 2 May at 03:59
The law will force Georgian companies and organizations to disclose their ties to foreign countries.
Georgians simply call it the “Russia Law”.
They have been demonstrating against it for weeks. More and more people are going out and demonstrating in the streets. Increasingly harsh measures are used by the police.
On Wednesday, the Georgian parliament voted through the law, writes the BBC.
Eleven people, including six police officers, are being treated in hospital after clashes when parliament voted for the controversial law, writes NTB.
83 elected representatives voted for, 23 voted against. The government has said it wants to have the law introduced by mid-May.
Photo: Irakli Gedenidze / REUTERS
Photo: Irakli Gedenidze / REUTERS
Photo: GIORGI ARJEVANIDZE / AFP
Photo: VANO SHLAMOV / AFP
Thousands of protesters
The reactions have not been long in coming. Several thousand Georgians are said to have stood outside the parliament building to show that they do not agree with the new law.
– No to the Russian law, they shout in unison.
The police respond with tear gas and water cannons.
But why don’t they want the law?
In short, the law states that media and organizations that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad must register. Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said the law is necessary to ensure financial transparency for scholarship recipients.
In Russia, the law is called the “foreign agent” law. Russian authorities use it to gag Western-backed actors.
The country is led by the Georgian Dream party and its leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili. Georgia has applied for membership in both NATO and the EU, but the population fears the government is not serious about the applications.
– I follow the situation in Georgia with great concern and condemn the violence in the streets of Tbilisi, says Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. She encourages Georgia to continue the process of becoming an EU member.
Georgia currently has candidate status.
Photo: Irakli Gedenidze / REUTERS
Beat down protesters
– Yesterday it started with them violently cracking down on peaceful demonstrators, beating them and arresting many, Mako Gavdadze of the Tolerance and Diversity Institute in Tbilisi writes to VG.
On Tuesday evening, the mood in the Georgian capital became tense.
Videos showed protesters throwing objects at riot police. And how riot police and police – some wearing only black clothes, without distinctions – beat and shot rubber bullets at the demonstrators.
Bidzina Ivanishvili made a fortune in metal and banking in Russia. He is party leader of the Georgian Dream party. Photo: Irakli Gedenidze / Reuters / NTB
– It happened because Georgia’s informal leader, the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, announced an anti-Western policy, writes Gavdadze.
– And suppression of the opposition.
– We are now asking the police and other security agencies not to use violence against non-violent demonstrators. We want a peaceful and good European future.