TBILISI, April 30. /TASS/. Clashes between the demonstrators protesting against the law on foreign agents and police broke out near the parliamentary building in downtown Tbilisi, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.
Several protesters who tried to block the way out of the building for lawmakers have been detained. Journalists have been ousted from the territory near the staff entrance to the building.
The lawmakers on Tuesday discussed the foreign agent law in the second reading but lacked time to finally pass it, so, they decided to continue on Wednesday.
On April 17, Georgia’s parliament approved in the first reading a bill on foreign agents. It was opposed by Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats, who saw it as an obstacle to the country's integration into the European Union. Since Monday, the opposition and civil activists have been holding rallies against the bill in Tbilisi. Protests sometimes turn into clashes with police.
The ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party announced in early April that it had decided to reintroduce the bill On the Transparency of Foreign Influence to parliament. This happened a year after a similar initiative triggered mass protests, forcing the authorities to abandon the bill. Its text remains identical to last year’s, except for the term "agent of foreign influence." Instead, the term "organization promoting the interests of a foreign power" is used.