Georgia Police Crack Down on Protest against ‘Foreign Influence’ Bill

Masked riot police violently cracked down on the rally on Tuesday beating and arresting many people protesting against the bill, which Brussels has denounced as undermining Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union, Al Jazeera reported.

Lawmakers earlier debated the controversial legislation, which would require organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents”.

The parliamentary session ended without a vote and the debate was set to resume on Wednesday.

The proposed legislation has deepened divisions between the governing Georgian Dream party and the protest movement backed by opposition groups, civil society, celebrities and Georgia’s President Salome Zurabishvili.

Georgian Dream holds a commanding majority in the legislature, allowing it to pass laws and to vote down a presidential veto without needing the support of any opposition legislators.

Critics have labelled the bill “the Russian law”, comparing it to Moscow’s “foreign agent” legislation, which has been used to crack down on dissent there.

Russia is disliked by many Georgians for its support of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia lost a brief war with Russia in 2008.

The United States, United Kingdom and the EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December, have criticized the bill. President of the European Council Charles Michel has said the bill “is not consistent” with Georgia’s bid for EU membership and “will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer”.

Punches were thrown last month in the hallways of parliament in Tbilisi during discussions about the controversial new law.