Post by LFC on Mar 7, 2023 23:02:44 GMT
There have been a number of lower key discussions about what happens to Russia's influence in other nations that are currently under their thumb if they completely bog themselves down in Ukraine. We might be seeing the first twinkling in Georgia. When BBC published this there were thousands of protesters.
This source describes it as tens of thousands. Russia likely doesn't have the manpower or equipment available to put down a democratic uprising. There have been multiple estimates that over 90% of everything they have is already in Ukraine.
Protesters have clashed with police in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, after parliament backed a controversial draft law which critics say limits press freedom and suppresses civil society.
Riot police used water cannon and pepper spray to disperse the crowds outside the parliament building.
Some protesters were seen falling on the ground and coughing, while others waved EU and Georgian flags.
The government said several policemen were hurt and police gear was damaged.
There has been widespread international condemnation of the proposed bill, which would require non-governmental and independent media organisations who receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare themselves as foreign agents.
The opposition described it as a Russian-style law that would stigmatise and clamp down on Georgia's vibrant civil society and independent media.
Russia passed its own version of a "foreign agents" law in 2012, expanding it over the years to target and suppress Western-funded NGOs and media.
"The law is Russian as we all know... We don't want to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union, we want to be a part of the European Union, we want to be pro-West," one protester told the Reuters news agency.
The country's President, Salome Zourabichvili, says she supports the protesters, saying they represented what she called free Georgia which saw its future in Europe.
But inside the parliament building, 76 lawmakers from the governing Georgian Dream party gave their initial support to the new "transparency of foreign influence" draft law.
On Monday, a committee hearing into the proposed legislation ended in a parliamentary brawl.
Passing the law would see Georgia join a list of undemocratic and authoritarian post-Soviet states such as Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan which have copied the Russian law on restricting the activities of non-governmental organisations.
Riot police used water cannon and pepper spray to disperse the crowds outside the parliament building.
Some protesters were seen falling on the ground and coughing, while others waved EU and Georgian flags.
The government said several policemen were hurt and police gear was damaged.
There has been widespread international condemnation of the proposed bill, which would require non-governmental and independent media organisations who receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare themselves as foreign agents.
The opposition described it as a Russian-style law that would stigmatise and clamp down on Georgia's vibrant civil society and independent media.
Russia passed its own version of a "foreign agents" law in 2012, expanding it over the years to target and suppress Western-funded NGOs and media.
"The law is Russian as we all know... We don't want to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union, we want to be a part of the European Union, we want to be pro-West," one protester told the Reuters news agency.
The country's President, Salome Zourabichvili, says she supports the protesters, saying they represented what she called free Georgia which saw its future in Europe.
But inside the parliament building, 76 lawmakers from the governing Georgian Dream party gave their initial support to the new "transparency of foreign influence" draft law.
On Monday, a committee hearing into the proposed legislation ended in a parliamentary brawl.
Passing the law would see Georgia join a list of undemocratic and authoritarian post-Soviet states such as Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan which have copied the Russian law on restricting the activities of non-governmental organisations.
This source describes it as tens of thousands. Russia likely doesn't have the manpower or equipment available to put down a democratic uprising. There have been multiple estimates that over 90% of everything they have is already in Ukraine.
