Georgia rocked by protests as government pushes Putin-style ‘foreign agent’ bill

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

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  Jafaridze is among thousands of Georgians who have for the past month gathered each night outside the country’s parliament, facing down tear gas and water cannons fired by increasingly brutal police, to protest a bill they fear will torpedo its bid to join the European Union and push it further into the Kremlin’s orbit.

  But critics say the intended target of the legislation is not business owners like him, but Georgia’s independent media and civil society organizations, ahead of elections in October in which Georgian Dream, whose popularity is waning, is desperate to keep power.

  “The pictures almost created a moral pressure on Brussels to reward these people, even though their government isn’t doing great,” Natalie Sabanadze, Georgia’s former ambassador to the EU – at a time when candidacy was almost unimaginable – told CNN.

  Eto Buziashvili, a former adviser to Georgia’s National Security Council who has attended most of the protests, said police on Tuesday night became “exceptionally brutal.” She told CNN she saw “many law enforcement officers who were not wearing identification marks.

  Ivanishvili, once a frontline politician but now a reclusive figure, made a rare appearance Monday night, addressing a crowd of counter-protesters after thousands of people were bussed to Tbilisi from Georgia’s rural regions, where Georgian Dream enjoys more support.

  In his speech, Kobakhidze denounced the “so-called liberals” protesting outside parliament and said they were attacking “homeland, language, and faith.” Sabanadze noted the appeal that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has to governments seeking to hold onto power.

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