Georgia: Lawmakers brawl over proposed 'foreign agents' law

Members of Georgia's Parliament brawled openly on Monday as a committee discussed a law with the stated purpose of cracking down on "foreign agents."

The legislation has been likened to a Russian law introduced in 2012, which the Kremlin has used to stifle dissent in civil society and shut down independent media outlets.

What happened in Parliament?

Video from the parliamentary chamber in the capital, Tbilisi, appeared to show the chairman of the chamber's legal affairs committee striking the leader of the United National Movement opposition party.

Other lawmakers then started to jostle and hit one another. Some of the men were removed from the room amid shouting and a loud scream.

One woman threw down her papers as a group of men tried to carry her away from the chairman's podium.

Outside the Parliament building on Monday, thousands of demonstrators gathered chanting and carrying placards bearing the words "No to the Russian law."

The placards featured pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili alongside one another.

Ivanishvili, an oligarch who made most of his fortune in Russia and who founded the ruling Georgian Dream party, is seen by many as the country's de facto leader.  

The incident follows similar scenes on Thursday, when protesters disrupted a committee hearing on the same bill. Lawmakers also brawled last week.

What does the proposed law entail?

The law in question, presently only in its draft stage, would apply to any organization that receives more than 20% of its funding from abroad, forcing it to register as a foreign agent or face being fined.

The law in Russia forces such organizations to undergo additional audits and obliges them to print a 24-word disclaimer on all publications, saying they are being distributed by a "foreign agent."

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, whose party supports the law, says Georgian society should similarly know which organizations are being financed from which sources, and brands opponents of the law as "spies."

Opponents say the law bears a distinct resemblance to Russia's foreign agent law and that it reflects a shift toward authoritarianism.

"This law, which targets civil society, is just part of the bigger picture, bigger anatomy of the treason, when we have a regime which sees the West and the Free World as our enemy, and tries to cultivate this Putinist idea in our society and betrays the future of Georgia," said Giga Bokeria, an opposition politician from the European Georgia Party.

"That's why we're here: to protest that and to deliver the message to society that our future needs this government to be changed," she added.

In February, more than 60 media outlets and civil society groups announced that, if the law were passed, they would not comply with it.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has also said she plans to veto the legislation, although this could be overridden by Parliament.

rc/ar (AFP, Reuters)