Georgia protests: at least 20 arrested opposing ‘Russia-inspired’ law

Police have tried to disperse protesters from outside parliament in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, as the government pushed forward with a divisive “Kremlin-inspired” law on foreign influence that the European Union has warned could wreck its membership bid.

Opposition politicians had urged an all-night protest to prevent MPs from approving the law at a committee hearing on Monday morning. About 1,000 people attempted to block entrances to parliament before police moved in. At least 20 people, including two US citizens and one Russian national, were arrested during scuffles, interior ministry officials said.

Video footage appeared to show a group of police officers beating a demonstrator. Riot police have previously used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon against protesters.

Georgia, a country of 3.7 million people on the coast of the Black Sea, has seen weeks of unrest since the government announced last month that it was backing the “foreign agent” law. Brussels has said that, if passed, the legislation would essentially kill any hope of EU membership. About 80 per cent of Georgians are in favour of joining the 27-nation union, according to opinion polls.

Critics say the legislation is modelled on a similar “foreign agent” law that President Putin has used to muzzle dissent in Russia. The government says the law is necessary to keep track of foreign funding of media outlets and non-governmental organisations.

The ruling Georgian Dream party said on Monday that the law had been passed by a parliamentary committee and that it would go to a third and final vote on Tuesday. Protesters have vowed to prevent the vote from taking place. Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Georgian interior minister, has warned that anyone trying to prevent MPs from entering parliament could face up to four years in prison.

Opponents of the law have also been attacked, including outside their homes, by suspected pro-government thugs. Others have had their faces printed on posters that accuse them of working on behalf of foreign governments.

Dimitri Chikovani, a member of the opposition United National Movement, accused the Georgian Dream party and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, of ordering the attacks to intimidate critics. He said: “There were five guys. They hit me in the face, it was very fast and very fierce.” Chikovani suffered a broken nose and broken cheekbone. “The police didn’t even question me,” he said. “Only the government could have done this.”

Monday’s arrests came after tens of thousands of Georgians rallied in the city’s Europe Square on Saturday to protest the law. Some estimated that more than 200,000 people had attended the rally, making it one of the biggest since Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. “No to the Russian law,” protesters shouted. Many were draped in EU flags.

The row has also caused a rift between the government and President Zourabichvili, who has said she will refuse to sign the legislation into law. However, her post is largely ceremonial and the Georgian Dream party will be able to override her veto.

Zourabichvili alleged in a recent interview with The Times that Georgian Dream and Ivanishvili had succumbed to Russian pressure and were intentionally seeking to derail Georgia’s “way to Europe” on behalf of Moscow. The government has accused Zourabichvili, who was born in France to Georgian émigrés, of being a “foreign agent”.

Last year the EU granted candidate status to Georgia and said it would open membership negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine, a move that put the three former Soviet states on the path to joining the union. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has said the law would “negatively impact” Georgia’s membership bid.

The crisis is reminiscent of unrest in Ukraine in 2013-14 that was sparked when President Yanukovych abandoned a deal to move the country closer to the EU after opposition from Moscow. Yanukovych was eventually toppled and the Kremlin deployed troops to Crimea and eastern Ukraine in response.

Britain has also urged the Georgian government to drop the legislation. “We actively support the Georgian people. We have made it clear that this bill is wrong,” Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign secretary, told Sky News. The United States has described the law as “Kremlin-inspired”.

The law would oblige media outlets and non-governmental organisations that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as “an organisation serving the interests of a foreign power”. The EU has also criticised Georgian Dream’s plans for a law restricting LGBT rights that critics say mirrors a similar clampdown in Moscow.

Russia has occupied about 20 per cent of Georgia’s territory since a five-day war in 2008 over Kremlin-backed breakaway regions. Despite massive public support in Georgia for Ukraine, the government has refused to back western sanctions against Moscow. Large numbers of Russians opposed to the war in Ukraine have found refuge in Georgia, despite widespread anti-Russian sentiment.