Thousands of people demonstrated in Georgia on Tuesday against a controversial “foreign agents” bill that critics condemned as a tool to intimidate the media and non-governmental organizations, AFP reported.

In Georgia, people protest against the draft law on “foreign agents”Photo: Nicolo Vincenzo Malvestuto / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

Police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters who gathered outside parliament after lawmakers passed the bill in first reading, according to footage released by independent Pireli TV.

According to the same source, at least one protester threw a Molotov cocktail at the police cordon during the largely peaceful protest.

Demonstrators protested a law that requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face fines.

The law is reminiscent of a similar law passed in Russia in 2012 that was widely used by the Kremlin to suppress media and opposition organizations or simple critical voices.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili appeared on New York television to say she “supports” the protesters.

“Today you represent a free Georgia that sees its future in Europe and will not allow anyone to steal that future,” she added, calling for the law to be “repealed” and vowing to veto it.

However, the veto can be overridden by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which controls more than half of the seats in parliament.

Georgia, a small former Soviet republic in the Caucasus, has ambitions to join the EU and NATO, but several recent government moves have cast a shadow over those aspirations and raised questions about its ties to the Kremlin.

The US Embassy in Georgia on Tuesday condemned the law passed in the first reading as “a dark day for Georgian democracy”.

“The parliament’s adoption of these Kremlin-inspired laws goes against the clear desire of the Georgian people to integrate into Europe and develop democratically,” she said on Facebook.

“Continuation of these laws will harm Georgia’s relations with its strategic partners,” the embassy said, although the law on “foreign agents” is also in force in the US.

  • Reference: VIDEO A fight between deputies in the Georgian parliament over a Russian-inspired law