Georgia police use tear gas to stop protest against ‘foreign agents’ law

By Ben Tavener and David Chkhikvishvili

TIBLIS, March 8 (Reuters) – Police in the former Soviet state of Georgia used tear gas and stun grenades early on Wednesday to break up a protest outside parliament against a “foreign agents” bill.

Reuters witnesses in the capital Tbilisi saw police with riot shields making arrests along Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare in the city center.

Hours earlier, police clashed with protesters, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails and rocks. Crowds then gathered outside Parliament, where some people pushed aside lightweight metal barriers meant to keep the public away from the building.

In a statement, the Home Office said there were injuries on both sides in what it said was an extremely violent protest. The police would react to violations of the law, he added.

The ministry said 66 people were arrested in the clashes, which lasted several hours.

The protests erupted after lawmakers gave their initial backing to the law, which critics say represents an authoritarian turn and could hurt the country’s bid to join the European Union.

In a speech in Berlin on Tuesday, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Garibashvili reaffirmed his support for the law, saying the proposed provisions on foreign agents meet “European and global standards”.

But European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the bill a “very negative development” for the country and could seriously affect its ties with the EU.

Thousands of people, some waving EU and Ukrainian flags, lined up outside parliament and listened as speakers denounced the law, which would require all organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from the foreigners to register as “foreign agents” or suffer significant damage. fines.

Critics say it is reminiscent of a 2012 law in Russia that has since been used to suppress dissent.

President Salome Zurabishvili, who said she would veto the law if it fell into her hands, said she sided with the protesters.

“You represent a free Georgia, a Georgia that sees its future in the West, and won’t let anyone take it away,” he said in a recorded speech in the United States, where he is on an official visit.

Late on Tuesday night, protesters angrily clashed with police armed with riot shields, who used tear gas and water cannons. At least three Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown at the police.

Some shouted “No to Russian law” and “You are Russians” at politicians inside parliament.

Many Georgians view Russia as an enemy, after Moscow backed separatists from Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 1990s.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States is deeply concerned and concerned about legislation that “would violate some of the rights that are fundamental to the aspirations of the Georgian people.”

Georgian opposition parties called for further protests on Wednesday, Georgia’s International Women’s Day holiday, with crowds expected to gather outside parliament from 3:00 p.m. (23:00 GMT).

(Reporting by David Chkhikvishvili, Ben Tavener, Felix Light and Jake Cordell in Tbilisi. Writing by David Ljunggren and Jake Cordell. Editing by Grant McCool and Bradley Perrett, Spanish editing by Tomás Cobos)