TBILISI - Police in the ex-Soviet state of Georgia used tear gas and stun grenades early on Wednesday to break up a protest outside Parliament against a draft law on "foreign agents".
Reuters eyewitnesses in the capital Tbilisi saw police with riot shields making arrests along Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare running through the centre of the city.
Hours earlier police had clashed with demonstrators, some of whom threw petrol bombs and stones.
The crowd then gathered outside parliament, where some people pulled aside metal barriers used to keep the public away from the building.
In a statement, the interior ministry said there were injured on both sides after what it called an extremely violent protest, and said police would react to violations of the law.
The protests erupted after legislators gave their initial backing to the law, which critics say represents an authoritarian shift and could hurt the country's bid to join the European Union.
Speaking in Berlin earlier on Tuesday, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Garibashvili reaffirmed his support for the law, saying the proposed provisions on foreign agents met "European and global standards".
But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the draft law was a "very bad development" for the country and could seriously affect its ties with the EU.
Thousands of people, some waving EU and Ukrainian flags,stood outside Parliament and listened as speakers denounced the law, which would require any organisations receiving more than20% of their funding from overseas to register as "foreign agents", or face substantial fines.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who has said she will veto the law it if crosses her desk, said she was on the side of the protesters.
"You represent a free Georgia, a Georgia which sees its future in the West, and won't let anyone to take this future away," she said in an address recorded in the United States,where she is on an official visit.
Late on Tuesday night protesters angrily clashed with police armed with riot shields who then used tear gas and water cannon. At least three petrol bombs, as well as stones, were thrown at police.
Some shouted: "No to the Russian law", and "You are Russian" at politicians inside the legislature.
Russia is viewed as an enemy by many Georgians, after Moscow backed separatists in the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 1990s.
Debate
Fistfights broke out among Georgian lawmakers on Monday as a parliamentary committee debated a bill on "foreign agents".
Video from inside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi showed a brief but violent brawl between lawmakers after the chairman of the chamber's legal affairs committee appeared to strike the leader of the United National Movement opposition party, which opposes the bill.
The governing Georgian Dream bloc last month announced that it supported the legislation, which still needs to pass other approval stages before it can become law.
The law would require organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as "foreign agents" and submit to monitoring by the justice ministry, or else face hefty fines.
Critics have compared it to a 2012 Russian law, which has been steadily expanded since then and used to crack down on Russian civil society and independent media. They have cast the law as symbolic of an authoritarian shift in Georgia.
"The Russian legislation that now is proposed in parliament is against Georgia's national interests, against our European aspirations," said Irakli Pavlenishvili, a civil rights activist and opposition politician.
"The whole international community and Georgian community is agreed on this topic".
However, Givi Mikanadze, a Georgian Dream lawmaker, told national television: "Georgian society absolutely deserves to know which organisations are being financed, from which sources.
"We are talking about transparency and having an obligation (to the Georgian people)."
The ruling party says it remains committed to Georgia one day joining the European Union.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto the bill, arguing that it would endanger Georgia's hopes of joining the EU and NATO. Parliament can override a presidential veto. Russia is strongly opposed to Georgia joining NATO.
Last month, more than 60 civil society organisations and media outlets said they would not comply with the new "foreign agent" legislation if it becomes law.
REUTERS