TBILISI, May 3. /TASS/. Twenty-three people were detained in Tbilisi during a protest rally on May 2 when demonstrators blocked Heroes’ Square in the center of the city, the Mtavari arkhi television channel reported, citing the Georgian interior ministry.
A grass-roots rally was held in Tbilisi on Thursday. Unlike the previous protests, when people gathered near the parliament building, this time activists protesting against the foreign agents law blocked traffic on Heroes’ Square, the crossroads of several streets. The police failed to push the protesters off the square. Moreover, the demonstrators blocked the traffic along the nearby embankment after those who had gathered in front of the parliament building joined them.
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. 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 force" is used.