UN, EU, US urge Georgia to halt ‘foreign agents’ bill as protests grow
Al Jazeera
Thousands gather in Tbilisi to protest against the bill, which passed its second reading in parliament this week.
The European Union, United Nations, and the United States have condemned legislation making its way through Georgia’s parliament on “foreign agents”, as thousands of protesters snarled traffic in the country’s capital Tbilisi on Thursday with a large new protest against the bill.
Protesters poured into Heroes’ Square, a key junction through which much of Tbilisi’s traffic passes between the city’s neighbourhoods. Long queues of vehicles remained blocked.
“We are all together to show the Kremlin’s puppets that we will not accept the government that goes against the Georgian people’s wishes,” said protester Giorgi Loladze, 27, from Kutaisi, Georgia’s third-largest city.
Tens of thousands of protesters had shut down central Tbilisi a day earlier in the largest anti-government rally yet. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to clear some of them.
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