Protesters clashed with police in the Georgian capital Tbilisi after parliament backed a controversial draft law that critics say restricts press freedom and stifles civil society.
Riot police used water cannons and pepper spray to disperse the crowd outside the parliament building.
Some protesters were seen falling to the ground and coughing, while others waved EU and Georgian flags.
The government said 50 policemen were injured and police gear was damaged.
Police arrested 66 people, including Zorab Zapridze, a Georgian opposition leader, who was allegedly beaten.
This bill has been universally condemned. It would require NGOs and media organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare themselves “foreign agents” or face heavy fines and possible imprisonment.
The opposition says the Russian-style law marks a shift toward authoritarianism and will hurt Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union. More protests have been called for outside Parliament on Wednesday.
A few hours earlier, the police had warned the protesters to disperse by sending repeated messages through loudspeakers. Eventually, riot police cleared Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare outside parliament.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the draft law would be a major blow and would “undercut some of the rights that are central to the aspirations of the people of Georgia”.
The EU is currently considering Georgia’s application for candidate status and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the bill was “incompatible with EU values and standards”.
Russia passed its own version of the “foreign agents” law in 2012, expanding it over the years to target and suppress Western-funded NGOs and media.
“The law is Russian as we all know… We don’t want to be part of the former Soviet Union, we want to be part of the European Union, we want to be pro-Western,” said one protester. told JEE News
Speaking via video during a visit to New York, Georgian President Salome Zorabicholi expressed her support for the protesters: “I am by your side. Today you represent independent Georgia. Georgia, which in Europe Sees his future, won’t let anyone take it away. That future.”
But inside the parliament building, 76 lawmakers from the governing Georgian Dream Party gave initial support to a new “transparency of foreign influence” draft law.
On Monday, brawls erupted in a committee hearing the proposed legislation, with a pro-government MP slapping the leader of the largest opposition party.
Passing the law would add Georgia to the list of post-Soviet non-democratic and authoritarian states such as Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan that have copied the Russian law restricting the activities of NGOs.
Historically, the term “agent” in Russia and Georgia has had connotations of “spy” and “traitor”, giving negative connotations to the work of civil society. This shows that they are working in the interest of external powers rather than the welfare of the country and society.
The US embassy issued a statement calling Tuesday’s vote “a dark day for Georgia’s democracy”.
It added that the parliament’s “advancement of these Kremlin-inspired laws is incompatible with the clear desire of the Georgian people for European integration and its democratic development”.
Two bills, on “Transparency of Foreign Agents” and “Registration of Foreign Agents”, were submitted to parliament by the openly anti-Western People’s Power Movement, a close ally of the ruling Georgian Dream Party.
The group argued that the second bill was precisely the same as the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Georgian Dream supported the drafts, saying such laws were needed to improve transparency.
At a briefing on Tuesday evening, the chairman of the governing party, Irakli Kobakhidze, reacted to the US embassy’s statement, saying it was “a dark day for the radical opposition and its supporters”.
What most protesters and the country’s opposition fear is that the adoption of the law will end Georgia’s long-held ambition to join the European Union. More than 80% of the population of Georgia supports the European perspective of Georgia, which is also enshrined in the country’s constitution.
