Attacked by Molotov cocktails, police in Tbilisi used tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators
Thousands of protesters in Tbilisi clashed with police on Tuesday over a proposed bill on foreign agents that critics claim was modeled after a Russian law. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has endorsed the protest while visiting the US.
According to local media reports, police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons against the protesters. The authorities said appropriate force was used after riot officers were attacked with incendiary projectiles.
Opposition activists have accused the government of wanting to pass a “Russian-style” law on foreign agents, requiring any organization receiving more than 20% of its funding from abroad to register as such. The Russian law, enacted in 2012, was itself based on the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), passed in 1938.
“Georgian people are out in the streets to defend the country’s European future amid [the] ruling party’s adoption of Russian foreign agent law. Georgia’s future will be European,” tweeted NGO activist Katie Shoshiashvili, sharing a video of a woman waving the EU flag against a water cannon.
Woman holding an EU flag facing water cannon by herself. Happening now in #Tbilisi. Georgian people are out in the streets to defend the country’s European future amid ruling party’s adoption of Russian foreign agent law. Georgia’s future will be European. #NoToRussianLawpic.twitter.com/7sYqAUfmBw
— Katie Shoshiashvili (@KShoshiashvili) March 7, 2023
Some Ukrainian media outlets described the bill as a “Kremlin-style law.” Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko dubbed it “similar to Russian law.”
Visegrad 24, a Polish-based Twitter account promoting pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian narratives, said the events in Tbilisi were “starting to look more and more like an ‘Euromaidan’ event,” referring to the US-backed 2014 color revolution in Ukraine.
President Salome Zurabishvili addressed the nation from the US, where she is currently visiting, voicing support for the protest and vowing to veto the bill if it passes. Zurabishvili was elected in 2018 with the backing of the ruling Georgian Dream party, but has since fallen out with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
“The Georgian Parliamentary promotion of Kremlin-inspired laws is incompatible with the clear desire of the people of Georgia for European integration and its democratic development,” the US embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement. The bill “raises real questions” about Tbilisi’s commitment to “Euro-Atlantic integration,” the embassy said, adding that if it passes, it would “damage Georgia’s relations with its strategic partners and undermine the important work of many Georgian organizations helping fellow citizens.”
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