Another protest in Georgia. “Putin, you b***h!” – they screamed, choking from the gas

Monday is another day of protest against the decision announced last week the government's decision to suspend talks with the European Union about membership Georgia.

Late in the evening, officers of the Georgian security forces entered the square in front of the parliament from three sides – from Freedom Square and two nearby streets. Before the pacification began, warning sirens were heard calling on protesters to disperse.

“The Eurorevolution cannot be stopped”, “The power of the nation is stronger than the people in power” – these are some of the slogans visible on the banners of the crowd gathered in the city center.

“Putin, you b***h!” – shouted the protesters choking from the gas.

Under pressure from the police, the demonstrators began to withdraw from the parliament, and the police began arresting them. The protesters stopped a few hundred meters from the parliament, in front of the opera building, and threw fireworks at the officers.

On Monday, young people – schoolchildren and students – appeared in large numbers at the demonstration.

Second-year student Sando came with a banner with a simple message: “We want freedom and democracy.” In an interview with the Polish Press Agency, he admits that young Georgians know perfectly well what it is European Union. – It opens the door to the future – he emphasizes.

University lecturer Mira also talks about hope for change, holding a card with the inscription “Now we choose our future.” Although he has been coming to the parliament every day since Thursday, this time – he emphasizes – he is here not for himself, but for his children and students.

Another student present at the event, Dawid, said that he came to protest against the government, on whose initiative the so-called anti-LGBT law came into force on Monday. He emphasized that before they came to the parliament, activists and representatives of sexual minorities protested against the discriminatory law in front of the headquarters of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

At the beginning of October, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, signed a package of regulations “on the protection of family values ​​and minors”, called the “anti-LGBT law”. The new law was neither signed nor vetoed by President Salome Zourabishvili. It provides for a ban on same-sex couples entering into relationships, a ban on adoption by non-heterosexual people and a ban on gender reassignment. In schools, it will be prohibited to provide information that may be interpreted as “propaganda of belonging to the opposite sex, same-sex relations or incest.”