• 7 months ago

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Transcript
00:00After a month of tensions and mass protests, Georgia's Prime Minister vowed to push the
00:06controversial Foreign Influence Bill through Parliament, calling it a matter of national
00:10sovereignty.
00:11If we back down to external pressure now, there will be more pressure in the future
00:18to abandon our family values, to pass same-sex legislation, to legalize drugs and uncontrolled
00:26immigration.
00:30Tomorrow the Parliament of Georgia will act on the will of the majority and pass the bill
00:33in its third reading.
00:36The announcement came as thousands of people took to the streets of the capital to protest
00:40against what they've dubbed the Russian law.
00:43The bill will require media outlets and advocacy groups that receive more than 20% of their
00:48funding from abroad to register as pursuing the interests of a foreign power, and critics
00:53say it mimics similar legislation used in Russia to silence dissent.
00:58For the past month, Georgia has been gripped by near-daily mass protests against the bill,
01:03which many people fear could derail the country's EU membership bid.
01:07On Monday, students walked out of universities to gather outside Parliament, where a judiciary
01:12committee formally approved the bill, in just over a minute.
01:17It's not even dystopian anymore.
01:20When they are passing a law in around 60 to 70 seconds, it's absurd.
01:25It makes me angry, and all these people are angry just because of that.
01:29We are going to continue protesting.
01:31The bill will now become law if approved by MPs in its third and final reading on Tuesday,
01:36but protesters were determined to keep up the pressure, and vowed they would be back
01:41in the morning.

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