TBILISI -- Georgia's president has called a contentious "foreign agent" law approved by parliament earlier this week "unacceptable" and "not consistent" with the country's path toward Euro-Atlantic institutions.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, to protest the government-supported law, which has been condemned by the United States, the European Union, and rights watchdogs for emulating a similar piece of Russian legislation used by President Vladimir Putin to crush dissent and stifle independent institutions.
“It’s unacceptable because it reflects a turn of the Georgian attitudes towards the civil society, towards the media and towards the recommendations of the European Commission that are not consistent with what is our declared policy of going towards a European integration,” President Salome Zurabishvili told the Associated Press in an interview on May 16.
Zurabishvili has pledged to veto the law in the coming days and has warned that Georgia's survival as a state was in danger because of the legilstion, which requires media outlets, NGOs, and other nonprofits to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if more than 20 percent of their funding comes from abroad.
Zurabishvili, who is at odds with the ruling Georgian Dream party that pushed the legislation through parliament, has 10 days from the day of the vote to exercise her veto powers. However, the dominant position of Georgian Dream and its partners in parliament is strong enough to override a presidential veto.
Similar legislation in Russia has been used to stifle dissent and curb independent media, prompting Georgians to refer to the measure as "the Russian law."
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'You Have To Choose Politics Or Work': The Georgians Fired For Protesting
On May 15, protesters marched along with the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Iceland in a gesture of solidarity with Georgians' Western aspirations.
"I want a future for the Georgian people where its European place is guaranteed," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told cheering crowds outside parliament late on May 15.
"We have started this journey together and our nations know what it means to be under the pressure of Moscow. We will never leave you, but all of us must shape the destiny of our nations," said Landsbergis, whose country, like Georgia and Estonia, used to be part of the former Soviet Union before declaring independence as communism collapsed more than three decades ago.
An RFE/RL source in Brussels said European Council President Charles Michel held talks with Zurabishvilil and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, where he stressed that the Georgian people must determine their own future. Michel told Kobakhidze to search for a way out of the political turbulence, the source said.
Kobakhidze has accused the protesters of "following the agenda of the political minority" and charged that they were showing a "great irresponsibility" toward their country.
The Georgian Dream-controlled security forces have repeatedly cracked down violently on protesters in recent weeks using water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets.
SEE ALSO: 'Rubber Bullets And Beatings': Victims, Eyewitnesses Talk Of Violence Against Georgian ProtestersActivist Davit Katsarava, who had been violently detained outside parliament and had sustained serious injuries to his face on May 14, recalled his ordeal in an interview with RFE/RL from his hospital bed.
"They cuffed my hands behind my back and called in a minivan that was parked nearby. I was brought to the minivan and heard one of them order others: Make a [human] ring. About 10 men beat me mercilessly," a bedridden Katsarava, whose face still bore visible traces of serious injuries, told RFE/RL.
"After two or three minutes, three of them followed me into the van and my [beating] continued there. My whole face and my head were bloody and swollen. They took out a phone and started filming. I heard one of them say [they were sending the video to someone]," Katsarava said.
Doctors said he had suffered a broken clavicle and fractured jaw and had undergone surgery.
The turbulence has begun to affect the country's economy, forcing the central bank on May 16 to intervene on the local market to support the Lari, the national currency, which had dropped almost 5 percent during the day to a near two-year low amid fears of a prolonged political crisis over the law.