A massive protest continues in Tbilisi against the reintroduced Foreign Agents Law.

Former Ambassador of Switzerland to Georgia, Guenther Baechler told the Accent that "the law on „Foreign Agents“ is a non-starter and should not find a majority in a democratically elected parliament."

"It is dangerous and creates a lot of problems both, within and outside Georgia. It is neither compatible to the democratic foundation of the Georgian state nor is it adhering to European values and norms. A majority of Georgian citizens as well as all partners of Georgia in Western democracies reject this unnecessary project," he said.

Former Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, emphasized "since Georgia is confronted with a couple of serious problems, one can only hope that the political leaders of Georgia show enough ripeness and responsibility in order to protect their country from further polarization and conflict."

On April 3, the parliamentary majority leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced the reintroduction of the draft law on foreign agents, which the GD had to withdraw last year after the March 7-9 massive rallies against the bill. According to Mdinaradze, the content of the bill remains the same, the only change is in the title: the word “agent” has been removed and replaced with “Organization Pursuing the Interests of a Foreign Power”.

The police force late on April 16 mobilized water cannons to the scene and sprayed an unknown liquid at protesters after some tried to move beyond a cordon. Officers, including some armed with shotguns, ordered protesters to disperse and deployed what appeared to be a crowd-control substance like pepper spray.

Several journalists, including from the online media Publika, Tabula and Aprili, reported being chased and beaten by police during the April 16-17 protest rally against the “Foreign Agents Law” near the Parliament building.

On April 16 the President once again condemned the Georgian Dream’s plan to adopt this legislation, saying “insistence of the authorities to push through this law against the will of the population and despite partners protest is a direct provocation – a Russian strategy of destabilization.”

The ruling Georgian Dream is expected to push through the draft bill in the first hearing in the morning of April 17.