Thousands of demonstrators blocked a key intersection in the Georgian capital Tbilisi today against the background of the ongoing protests in the country against the law on "foreign agents", reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
They blocked Heroes' Square, through which most of the city's traffic passes.
Georgia's parliament yesterday approved a second reading of the "foreign agents" bill, which critics say was inspired by the Kremlin. The bill, which requires organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, has sparked a political crisis in the Caucasian country.
Unlike the previous days, the protests took place in two different places - in front of the parliament, which is the traditional place for demonstrations, and on Heroes' Square, where there is a monument in memory of Georgian soldiers who died in battles, reported France Press.< /p>
The demonstrators blocked the road leading to the square, and the police arrested several of them and used pepper spray, as they did yesterday. As a sign of solidarity with the arrested, the demonstrators in front of the parliament went to the square.
Protesters chanted "No to Russia!" and they carried posters with the faces of deputies from the ruling party "Georgian Dream" with the words "traitors".
Critics of the bill, which has also been criticized by the EU and the US, believe it will hinder the former Soviet republic's ambitions to join the EU. They accuse "Georgian Dream" of fulfilling Russia's goals.
"We are all together to show the puppets of the Kremlin that we will not accept a government that goes against the will of the Georgian people," one of the protesters told AFP.
In recent days, tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in front of the parliament to protest against the law, according to AFP. On Tuesday, police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets and made about sixty arrests.
The Georgian government assures that the purpose of the bill is to force organizations to demonstrate greater transparency regarding their funding.
The first version of the bill was abandoned last year after large-scale street protests, notes AFP.