TBILISI, May 2. /TASS/. Participants in a rally against the ‘foreign agents’ law have blocked Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi, TASS reports from the scene.
The protesters started another rally on Thursday evening. A stage has already been put up near the parliament building, where political speeches will soon begin. Opposition leaders are not yet seen there.
Meanwhile, Heroes' Square, located a few kilometers from Rustaveli Avenue, has become another center of protests against the law on foreign agents. Protesters have already got together there, blocking the square, although the police initially prevented them from doing so.
On Wednesday, Georgia’s parliament passed the second reading of the bill "On the Transparency of Foreign Influence," which had been opposed by President Salome Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats, who see it as an obstacle to Georgia’s integration into the European Union. Opposition members and civil activists have been holding protest rallies in front of the parliament building in the country’s capital of Tbilisi since April 15.
In early April, the ruling Georgian Dream party announced its decision to reintroduce the bill a year after the initiative was quashed following mass protests. The bill is almost identical to last year’s, with one exception: the term "agent of foreign influence" has been replaced with "organization pursuing foreign interests."