Georgia, a small ex-Soviet republic in the Caucasus, has ambitions to join the EU and NATO, but recent government moves have cast a shadow over those ambitions.
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Published on 07/03/2023 23:40
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Thousands of people demonstrated in Georgia on Tuesday, March 7, against a controversial “foreign agents” law that critics of power have denounced as a means of intimidating the media and NGOs.
According to footage from the independent Pireli TV, police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters who had gathered outside Parliament after MPs passed the law at first reading. During the largely peaceful rally, at least one protester threw a Molotov cocktail at a riot police cordon, according to the same source.
A similar text adopted in Russia
The demonstrators were protesting a law that would require organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad To as “foreign agents” or face fines. This text is reminiscent of a similar law passed in Russia in 2012, which the Kremlin has widely used to stifle the media and opposition organizations or simple critical voices.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said on TV from New York that she was “on the side” of the demonstrators. “Today you represent a free Georgia that sees its future in Europe and will not let anyone steal that future,” she added, calling for the law to be “repealed” and promising to veto it. However, this veto was overruled by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, which controls more than half of the seats in Parliament.
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