According to official information, the police in the South Caucasus republic of Georgia arrested 66 demonstrators during the night during the heavy protests once morest the controversial “agent” law. The Interior Ministry accuses those arrested of minor hooliganism and resistance to state authority, Georgian media said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the parliament in Tbilisi passed the draft law “On the Transparency of Foreign Influence”, which officially aims to disclose money flows from abroad, by a majority in the first reading. Critics fear that the Georgian provision might be modeled on a similarly worded law in Russia.
Several thousand people took to the streets in the capital Tbilisi once morest the controversial law once morest “foreign agents”. In the evening there were violent clashes with the police, who dispersed the people with tear gas, smoke grenades and water cannons. For their part, the demonstrators tried to storm the parliament building. The opposition has already announced new protests for Wednesday evening.
The President of the ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, has since contacted the demonstrators and assured them of their support. She will veto the law if it is passed by Parliament. Civil rights activists fear that passing the law will undermine Georgia’s democracy and worsen the country’s prospects for EU membership. A similar law in Russia has been taming the opposition for years.
The foreign ministers of the Baltic States have expressed serious concern regarding the new regime on “foreign agents” in Georgia. The adopted draft law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” raises serious questions regarding the prospects of democracy in the Caucasus republic, Urmas Reinsalu (Estonia), Edgars Rinkevics (Latvia) and Gabrielius Landsbergis (Lithuania) said in a joint statement on Wednesday. Mass protests broke out in Georgia once morest the project, which is officially aimed at disclosing money flows from abroad.
“We call on the Parliament of Georgia to responsibly assess the country’s true interests and refrain from taking decisions that might undermine the aspirations of the Georgian people to live in a democratic country that is moving closer to the EU and NATO,” they wrote Chief diplomats of the three Baltic EU and NATO countries. At the same time, they called on the Georgian government to respect the people’s right to peaceful protest.
