Thousands of protesters marched through central Tbilisi on Saturday to rally against a controversial "foreign influence" bill backed by the Georgian government and likened to Russian laws that suppress dissent.
Mass rallies have gripped the Black Sea and Caucasus country for almost a month after the ruling Georgian Dream party revived a bill scrapped last year amid a huge backlash.
Demonstrators gathered in Tbilisi's central Europe Square on Saturday evening in the latest protest, an AFP journalist noted.
In the pouring rain, protesters chanted “No to Russian law!” and “No to Russian dictatorship!”, waving red and white Georgian flags and blue EU flags in a sea of umbrellas in a large area.
“We are defending our European future and our freedom,” said one of the protesters, Mariam Menrguia, 39, who works for a German company, adding that she fears the country is moving in the direction of Russia.
“We don’t need to go back to the Soviet Union,” said 38-year-old Georgian teacher Lela Tsiklauri.
The European Union, the United States and the United Nations have opposed the law, and UN human rights chief Volker Türk has also raised concerns about police violence against protesters.
Georgian police violently dispersed the demonstration on April 30, using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, and beating and arresting scores of people.
The bill passed its second reading in parliament this month, ahead of parliamentary elections in October that are seen as a key test of democracy in the former Soviet republic as it seeks EU membership.
If passed, the law would require any independent non-governmental organization and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as a “foreign power organization.”
"We won't stop"
Georgian Dream supported the bill, saying it would increase transparency of foreign funding to NGOs. It said it aims to sign the legislation by mid-May.
Massive street protests last year forced Georgian Dream to abandon plans for such measures, but it has since reintroduced the bill.
“This year the wave of people and anger is stronger,” said student Anri Papidze, 21, dressed in a leather jacket and black cap.
“We are not victims of propaganda. We're not going to stop. We will not be slaves of the Russian Empire."
Another protester, 46-year-old Victoria Sarzhveladze, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, said her husband was fighting there against Russia.
She said they "felt angry and betrayed" by the government reintroducing the bill, linking it to a "power struggle ahead of the election".
“The only serious critical voices left are in the NGO sector and independent media,” she said.
Georgia has for years sought to deepen relations with the West, but Georgian Dream has been accused of trying to bring the country closer to Russia.
Many believe that the party's honorary chairman, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, is pulling the strings of power from the back seat.
He developed relations with Moscow while promising a future within the EU.
Last month, in a rare speech, Ivanishvili criticized NGOs as "a pseudo-elite raised by a foreign country" and blamed Western states, not Russia, for Moscow's 2008 invasion of Georgia and its 2022 attack on Ukraine.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.