Participants in the opposition demonstration, which began on Saturday in Tbilisi, continued on Sunday morning to occupy part of Rustaveli Avenue, the city’s central street, and showed aggression towards law enforcement officers, an RIA correspondent reports. Novosti.
At 6:00 (5:00 Moscow time), the crowd of protesters stretched for several hundred meters. Part of the group built barricades and spent the entire night launching fireworks at special forces lined up nearby. Protesters also drank alcohol and committed acts of vandalism, including anti-government and anti-Russian graffiti.
Previously, during the evening and night protests, protesters threw stones and fireworks at parliament, as well as burning objects, causing a fire inside the building, which was extinguished. Security forces responded by using gas, driving the crowd away from the parliament building.
Protests began in Georgia after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the decision to suspend until 2028 the start of negotiations on the country’s membership in the European Union. In the last two days, the police have arrested 107 people. The protesters were arrested and accused of vandalism or disobedience to police orders. Ten police officers were injured in the attacks, one of them is hospitalized with burns.
The republic’s authorities adopted two laws criticized in the EU this year: “On family values and the protection of minors”, also known as the law prohibiting LGBT propaganda.*and “On the Transparency of Foreign Influence”, or Foreign Agents Law. Brussels criticized these initiatives and demanded Tbilisi cancel them, threatening to suspend the EU accession process, suspend financial support and even stop visa liberalization for Georgian citizens.
*Extremist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.
