Georgia’s ruling celebration has withdrawn a controversial invoice from parliament after two nights of protests towards the proposed legislation, whose critics say marked a slide into Russia-style repression.

In an announcement on Thursday, Georgian Dream, the celebration managed by the reclusive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, and its coalition associate mentioned they might withdraw the invoice “unconditionally” after the general public outcry.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tbilisi on Tuesday and Wednesday waving EU, Ukrainian and American flags in what was paying homage to large pro-EU demonstrations in Ukraine earlier than Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Georgian demonstrators chanted “No to Russian legislation’’, “By no means going again to the USSR”, “Georgia belongs to Europe” and “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine).

The protests began after a draft “international agent” legislation — apparently impressed by a equally named legislation in Russia that President Vladimir Putin used to crush impartial media and non-governmental organisations — handed its first studying in parliament on Tuesday. The invoice would have required all media retailers and NGOs to register as “international brokers” in the event that they acquired 20 per cent of their funding from overseas.

The US and Brussels had mentioned the legislation was incompatible with Georgia’s efforts to affix the EU and Nato.

Every night time, police used water cannons, tear fuel and stun grenades to interrupt up the protests. Not less than one police automotive was overturned and a complete of 133 folks have been arrested by legislation enforcement officers.

“We’re right here to guard western values and our structure which states that the Georgian authorities ought to take all measures to make sure the total integration of Georgia into the EU and Nato,” mentioned Zurab Tatanashvili, lecturer at Tbilisi State College, who took half within the protest. “The federal government selected to go towards our western allies . . . As an alternative, they took steps which might be preferred by the Kremlin.”

As clouds of tear fuel rose above the streets of Rustaveli Avenue and the sirens went off, a bunch of Georgian children began dancing. Some handed out roses to policemen, in a nod to the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003 that swept pro-western chief Mikheil Saakashvili into energy. He’s at current serving a jail time period in Georgia in what his attorneys say are inhumane situations, with the ruling celebration refusing to switch him for medical care overseas regardless of calls from Kyiv and western capitals to take action.

Georgian Dream on Thursday admitted that the invoice had “brought on variations of opinion in society” however blamed a “machine of lies” for casting it in a destructive gentle and deceptive the general public. It mentioned the label “Russian legislation” was false and didn’t veer the nation off its European course.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who will not be a member of Georgian Dream however was backed by the celebration when she ran for the presidency in 2018, expressed her help for the protesters in a video message recorded within the US towards the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty and vowed to veto the legislation.

Opposition MP Anna Natsvlishvili praised her fellow residents for displaying “unprecedented unity” and forcing the federal government to “take a step again”.

“Georgian folks as soon as once more spoke up and mentioned Georgia’s future is in Europe, Georgia belongs within the EU, that is our alternative,” she mentioned.

The latest polls present that 85 per cent of Georgians help EU membership. Anti-Kremlin sentiments are excessive, on condition that Russia maintains management over 20 per cent of the nation’s territory after a quick warfare in 2008.