Tbilisi: "supporters of foreign agents" with water cannons

Georgia's parliament approved the second reading of a bill on "foreign agents" on May 1, a proposed measure that has sparked weeks of protests in the country, local television reported.

The draft law stipulates that organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funds from abroad will be registered as "foreign agents" or face fines.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered around the parliament building and reacted to the adoption of the law. The police intervened with pepper spray and water cannons.

Demonstrators threw various objects at police teams stationed in the inner courtyard of the parliament building.

Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze accused the protesters of trying to enter the parliament building without permission. He announced that seven policemen were injured in incidents in the last two days.

Transparency of financing

83 deputies voted for the draft law on "transparency of foreign influence" and 23 against. A bill must be approved three times in parliament to be accepted as law. It has already been approved twice.

The leader of the parliamentary majority, Mamuka Mdinaradze, recently stated that more than 90 percent of the funding of non-governmental organizations operating in Georgia is not transparent.

He also said that it is impossible to get transparent information about the funding that international financial institutions in his country provide to institutions such as non-governmental organizations and the media.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that they work openly and transparently as a government and that all non-governmental organizations in his country should also work transparently.