Brian McDonald
Tbilisi – Hundreds of young Georgians crowded outside the Caucasus country’s parliament on Monday after an all-night demonstration against a controversial “foreign influence” law that critics say was inspired by repressive Russian legislation . The former Soviet republic has been roiled by escalating protests for weeks over the bill that protesters say will sabotage the country’s hopes of joining the European Union and erode democracy.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that 20 people were arrested during the morning, including three foreign citizens identified as two US citizens and one Russian.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, which was forced to abandon a similar bill last year after public protests, intends to approve the bill at a final hearing scheduled for Tuesday, arguing that the new rules will promote transparency.
The law requires non-governmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as an “organization that pursues the interests of a foreign power.”
Daro Sulakauri/Getty
“We plan to stay here as long as necessary,” Mariam Karlandadze, 22, told AFP as lawmakers approved the bill in a legal committee. “This law means not joining Europe. This is something I have wanted all my life.”
AFP journalists saw hundreds of riot police lined up on a street behind parliament, where law enforcement scuffled with protesters and carried out arrests. Authorities warned that people blocking Parliament would be arrested, but thousands of people defied the warning and headed to the building’s gates. Hundreds of people remained on the streets after police intervened to make arrests.
The European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status last year, urged Tbilisi to investigate the alleged acts of violence and praised Georgians’ “impressive commitment” to European integration.
“We strongly condemn acts of intimidation, threats and physical attacks against protesters, civil society activists, politicians and journalists and media workers,” said spokesman Peter Stano.
One of the protesters, 26-year-old Ana Mirakove, said she was worried that the standoff with police could turn more violent “at any moment.”
“No one here thinks it will be safe,” she told AFP. “I see Georgia where it belongs: within the European Union and free to decide its own future.”
The protests are led by university students who have declared a strike and promised to protest throughout the day. Many of them spent the night there, wrapped in EU and Georgian flags. They erupted in applause as stray dogs barked behind the police cars.
Critics of Georgian Dream say the party is reneging on integration commitments to Europe and that the bill will bring Georgia closer to authoritarian Russia.
Moscow passed a similar foreign influence law in 2012 and used the rules to increase pressure on opposition figures and advocacy groups.
“If this law is passed, we will slowly become Russia. We know what happened there and in Belarus. We know this scenario,” said 26-year-old Archil Svanidze.
“We always knew we were part of Europe. All generations know this — not just Gen Z and millennials,” he said, adding that his father was at the protest most of the night.
Georgian Dream – in power since 2012 – portrayed the protesters as a violent mob and defended the law as necessary for Georgia’s sovereignty. He brought back the bill in a shocking move in April, a year after it was abandoned following a backlash.
His billionaire supporter Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, accused non-governmental organizations of plotting a revolution and being foreign puppets.
The party also accused protesters of maintaining links with its enemy and former leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained on charges of abusing his office.
“The irony is that they always criticize the last government as corrupt and brutal,” said Salome Lobjanidze, 18, who skipped university classes on Monday to stay out of Parliament. “If that happens, many of the people who are here will leave (the country).”
