Violent clashes erupted between protesters and police in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, on Tuesday as the country’s parliament continued debating a controversial “foreign agents” bill, criticized by Western and domestic opponents as authoritarian and Russian-inspired. The bill, dubbed “the Russian law” by critics due to parallels with legislation used by the Kremlin to crack down on dissent, has been reintroduced for debate by the ruling Georgian Dream party, after it was dropped last year amid a wave of protests. The legislation, which would require organizations that accept funds from abroad to register as foreign agents or face fines, has been criticized by Western countries, including the US and Britain, and seen by rights groups as an attempt to curtail basic freedoms in the country. “Second night of massive protest in Tbilisi against the Russian Law,” Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili said in a post on social media on Tuesday. “Insistence of the authorities to…
