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Thousands march in Tbilisi to protest Georgia's 'foreign agents' law

Police face stones and petrol bombs during violent protests over a controversial law that would require groups receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from overseas to register as "foreign agents" or face penalty.

Reuters

Police use water cannon to disperse protesters during a rally against the "foreign agents" law in Tbilisi.

Georgian police have used tear gas and water cannon against protesters as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the capital Tbilisi to oppose a controversial "foreign agents" bill.

At one point a protester opposed to the law that would impose registration requirements on media and NGOs with foreign ties threw a petrol bomb at a cordon of riot police on Tuesday, according to TV footage.

At least three petrol bombs, as well as stones, were thrown at police.

People suffering from the effects of tear gas were being treated on the steps outside the parliament building.

"I came here because I know that my country belongs to Europe, but my government doesn't understand it," said 30-year-old protester Demetre Shanshiashvili.

"We are here to protect our country because we don't want to be part of Russia again," he added, referring to the almost two centuries Georgia spent as part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union.

Late on Tuesday, police began mass detention of people protesting the bill after dispersing demonstration near parliament building, reports said.

The law, backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, would require any organisations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from overseas to register as "foreign agents", or face substantial fines.

Critics have said it is reminiscent of a 2012 law in Russia that has since been used to crack down on dissent.

Speaking in Berlin earlier on Tuesday, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Garibashvili reaffirmed his support for the law, saying the proposed provisions on foreign agents met "European and global standards".

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who wants to veto the law if it crosses her desk, said she was on the side of the protesters.

"You represent a free Georgia, a Georgia which sees its future in the West, and won't let anyone to take this future away," she said in an address recorded in the United States, where she is on an official visit.

"Nobody needs this law ... everyone who has voted for this law has violated the constitution," she said.

Parliament, though, can override her veto.

Reuters

Thousands of people, some waving EU and Ukrainian flags, stood outside parliament and listened as speakers denounced the law.

Russian role in Georgia

Earlier, the law had comfortably passed its first parliamentary reading, Georgian media outlets reported.

Some of the protesters gathered outside the parliament building carried Georgian, European Union and US flags, and shouted: "No to the Russian law", and "You are Russian" at politicians inside the legislature.

Moscow backed separatists in the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 1990s.

Hundreds of thousands of Georgians remain internally displaced within the country after several bouts of bloody ethnic conflict.

The United States was closely following developments in Georgia, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

The ruling party, which says it wants Georgia to join the European Union, has accused critics of the bill of opposing the Georgian Orthodox Church, one of the country's most respected and influential institutions.

On Monday, a committee hearing on the law ended in a physical brawl in parliament.

More than 60 civil society organisations and media outlets have said they will not comply with the bill if it is signed into law.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies