The chairman of Georgia’s opposition party has been badly beaten amid protests over a ‘Russian law’. Levan Khabeishvili was attacked during a demonstration over the law on April 30 in the capital Tbilisi. His nose was broken and his teeth kicked out but he turned up to speak in parliament the next day. During the debate, a brawl then broke out between progovernment and opposition MPs. The violence is related to a socalled 'Russian law' the Kremlinfriendly government is trying to pass.
The law would force all news outlets and activist groups receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as ‘foreign agents’ and promote themselves as such in public. A similar law in Russia has been used by Putin to crack down on dissent and political opponents, while the EU has also warned that passing the law is incompatible with its values. Georgia has long been torn between its Soviet past and a future as part of the West, and this law is being seen as part of the clash between those two cultures. The government tried to pass the law last year but was forced to abandon it due to opposition, and is now trying again ahead of elections in October. The ruling Georgia Dream part has also passed a law giving it control over the electoral commission and has proposed restrictions on LGBT rights in what many also see as an attempt to move closer to Russia.


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What is going on in Georgia? MP beaten and fights in parliament over 'Russian law'
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