Georgia faces another week of political turmoil as MPs and protesters continue to clash over a controversial "foreign influence" bill that threatens the country's bid to join the European Union, and which critics say is an attack on the media and civil society.
Thousands have taken to the streets after the government announced on 4 April that it was reintroducing the bill to parliament, having abandoned it last year following mass protests. This culminated in last Sunday's "March for Europe" where at least 20,000 people filled Tbilisi's central Republic Square, with more pro- and anti-government demonstrations due to take place in the coming days.
The law has "ignited a political crisis in the polarised South Caucasus country", said Reuters, with Georgia "at a crossroads now", according to Kornely Kakachia, head of the Georgian Institute of Politics think tank, and facing the choice "between authoritarianism and the potential to become part of Europe".
The ruling Georgian Dream party has said the bill is modelled on the US Foreign Agents Registration Act and is needed to promote transparency and combat "pseudo-liberal values" imposed by foreigners.
But critics, including Georgia's opposition and civil society groups, have dubbed the bill "the Russian law", comparing it to similar legislation that the Kremlin has used to suppress dissent and silence political opponents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sees the Caucasus, like Ukraine, as part of a lost greater Russia and could use the current unrest as a pretext to intervene. But the West also has an "important stake in whether Georgia returns to Moscow's orbit or throws off Russian influence", concluded Reuters, and, crucially, "whether that can be done without triggering further conflict". | 
