Violent clashes erupted between protesters and police in Georgia\u2019s capital, Tbilisi, on Tuesday as the country\u2019s parliament continued debating a controversial \u201cforeign agents\u201d bill, criticized by Western and domestic opponents as authoritarian and Russian-inspired. <\/p>\n
The bill, dubbed \u201cthe Russian law\u201d by critics due to parallels with legislation used by the Kremlin to crack down on dissent, has been reintroduced for debate by the ruling Georgian Dream party, after it was dropped last year amid a wave of protests. <\/p>\n
The legislation, which would require organizations that accept funds from abroad to register as foreign agents or face fines, has been criticized by Western countries, including the US and Britain, and seen by rights groups as an attempt to curtail basic freedoms in the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cSecond night of massive protest in Tbilisi against the Russian Law,\u201d Georgia\u2019s President Salome Zourabichvili said in a post on social media on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cInsistence of the authorities to push through this law against the will of the population and despite partners protest is a direct provocation \u2013 a Russian strategy of destabilization,\u201d said Zourabichvili, who has vowed to repeal the law if it crosses her desk. <\/p>\n
The Georgian Dream party, which has been pushing for the law, has the parliamentary majority which could override a presidential veto. <\/p>\n
Videos shared on activist Telegram channels and news agencies showed riot police trying to clear demonstrators from the area around the parliament. In the videos, police could be seen grabbing protesters by the clothes and firing what appeared to be water cannons. <\/p>\n
At least one employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was injured during Tuesday\u2019s clashes, the ministry said in a statement. <\/p>\n
If protesters \u201ccontinue their illegal actions,\u201d the Ministry of Internal Affairs will \u201cadminister special measures defined by law,\u201d it warned. \u201cEach illegal action will be followed by appropriate legal response from the police,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n
Dramatic scenes unfolded inside the ex-Soviet country\u2019s parliament a day earlier, as Georgian television showed the leader of the Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, being punched in the face by opposition lawmaker Aleko Elisashvili. A wider brawl between several lawmakers followed. <\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have denounced the \u201cforeign agents\u201d law, saying if adopted, it would also \u201cimpose additional onerous reporting requirements, inspections, and administrative and criminal liability, including up to five years in prison for violations.\u201d <\/p>\n
The legislation is \u201cincompatible with international human rights law and standards that protect the rights to freedom of expression and association,\u201d Human Rights Watch warned. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Violent clashes erupted between protesters and police in Georgia\u2019s capital, Tbilisi, on Tuesday as the country\u2019s parliament continued debating a controversial \u201cforeign agents\u201d bill, criticized by Western and domestic opponents as authoritarian and Russian-inspired. The bill, dubbed \u201cthe Russian law\u201d by critics due to parallels with legislation used by the Kremlin to crack down on <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}