TBILISI, May 2. /TASS/. Demonstrators in Tbilisi protesting against the foreign agent bill have torn down a Russian flag, a TASS correspondent reported.
At first, protesters flocking around the staff entrance to the parliament building put the flag on the building’s gate and attempted to set it on fire. After failing to do this, they took the flag down and tore it into pieces.
Several thousand people on Wednesday evening gathered for a protest rally outside the parliament building. At a certain point, the rally turned into clashes with the police. Some of the demonstrators approached the staff only entrance to the parliament on April 9 Street and began to swing the gates. The riot police in the building’s courtyard responded with tear gas and pepper gas and water jets. Stones, bottles and firecrackers were hurled at the police.
On May 1, the Georgian parliament after the second reading supported the bill On the Transparency of Foreign Influence, which Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats oppose as an an obstacle to the country’s integration into the European Union. The opposition and civil activists have been holding rallies against the bill in Tbilisi since April 15.
The ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party announced in early April that it had decided to reintroduce the bill 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.
The bill 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 for its "Russian" nature. Meanwhile Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov slammed attempts to link the Georgian bill with Russia as absurd. He noted that similar laws are being passed in nearly all countries across the globe because no one wants any foreign interference into their domestic affairs.