Georgian MP punched in brawl over controversial bill

A BRAWL broke out in the Georgian parliament yesterday after the ruling party moved forward with a controversial bill on “foreign agents” that has been criticised by Western countries.

MP Aleko Elisashvili was ejected from parliament after admitting to punching Mamuka Mdinaradze, the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, “right in his Russian face”. Mr Mdinaradze is a driving force behind the bill, which Mr Elisashvili, the opposition leader, is vehemently against.

Outside parliament, Mr Elisashvili told reporters: “We must shove this law up their a---s. This is not a time for politeness.”

Footage broadcast on Georgian television, and on the parliament’s livestream, captured the moment politicians came to blows, which led to a wider punch-up between several lawmakers.

Such altercations are not uncommon in Georgia’s parliament, where there was a fistfight over the bill in March.

Georgian Dream said earlier this month it would reintroduce legislation requiring organisations that accept funds from abroad to register as foreign agents or face fines, 13 months after protests forced it to shelve the plan.

The bill has been criticised by European countries and the US. The European Union, which gave Georgia candidate status in December, has said the move is incompatible with the bloc’s values. The law would require organisations receiving more than 20 per cent 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 with a 2012 Russian law which has been steadily expanded and used to crack down on civil society and independent media.

Russia is widely unpopular in Georgia, owing to Moscow’s support for the breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia defeated Georgia in a short war in 2008.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the Georgian parliament building ahead of a mass protest called for by civil society organisations.

Some 10,000 people took to the streets yesterday in the capital Tbilisi to protest the controversial bill, which critics say mirrors repressive Russian legislation used to silence dissent.