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Riot police break up protest rally near parliamentary building in Tbilisi

Several thousand people have been protesting against the law on foreign agents

TBILISI, April 30. /TASS/. Riot police have surrounded the building of Georgia’s parliament in downtown Tbilisi, forcing the demonstrators protesting against the foreign agent law leave the area, a TASS correspondent reported.

Riot police units blocked all the streets in the vicinity of the Georgian parliament building leaving only one street for the protesters to retreat. Water cannons were used to break up the rally.

The situation has by now stabilized, with the protesters standing far from the parliament. They say however that they are not going to leave.

Several thousand people gathered near the building of Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday to protests against the law on foreign agents while the lawmakers were discussing it in the second reading. Protests grew into clashes with the police who began to detain activists. Police used tear gas against the protesters.

On April 17, Georgia’s parliament approved in the first reading a bill on foreign agents. It was opposed by Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats, who saw it as an obstacle to the country's integration into the European Union. Since Monday, the opposition and civil activists have been holding rallies against the bill in Tbilisi. Protests sometimes turn into clashes with police.

The ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party announced in early April that it had decided to reintroduce the bill On the Transparency of Foreign Influence to parliament. This happened a year after a similar initiative triggered mass protests, forcing the authorities to abandon the bill. Its text remains identical to last year’s, except for the term "agent of foreign influence." Instead, the term "organization promoting the interests of a foreign power" is used.

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