A brave demonstrator has gone viral for determinedly waving her EU flag even as police used huge water cannons to try and mow her down in Georgia.
Protests erupted in the country’s capital, Tbilisi, on Tuesday after its parliament supported two controversial new bills which have been accused of limiting press freedom and civil rights.
The legislation stipulates that non-government and media organisations would need to declare themselves as “foreign agents” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from outside Georgia. If they don’t comply, they face large fines and potential imprisonment.
It was put forward by the anti-Western People’s Power movement, which is allied to the governing Georgian Dream party.
Protesters say this is an authoritarian move which would affect Georgia’s application to become an EU member and suggests the country is aligning with Russia.
The BBC reported that more than 80% of the general public back the move to join the EU. The bid to join the bloc is also enshrined in the country’s constitution.
So thousands gathered outside the parliament building on Tuesday to protest the legislation – and police, dressed in riot gear and with shields, tried to break them up by using water cannons and pepper sprays, in a clash which lasted for hours.
The government has since said 50 officers were hurt in the demonstrations, and 66 people were arrested including one of the country’s opposition leaders Zurab Japaridze.
That’s why this one clip of a woman refusing to back down amid the chaos has gone so viral.
In a huge crowd, she defiantly waves the EU flag while the water cannon is being aimed at her. Although people around her fall, she stays standing – and within moments, other members of the public rush to help her dodge the cannon repeatedly.
Soon, there’s a huddle around her, protecting the flag-bearer in her emotional display.
More than one million people watched the clip within just 12 hours.
Another protester reportedly told Reuters news agency: “The law is Russian as we all know... We don’t want to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union, we want to be a part of the European Union, we want to be pro-West.”
The new bills have drawn international condemnation too.
US state department spokesman Ned Price said that the legislation would “strike at some of the very rights that are central to the aspirations of the people of Georgia”.
The US embassy also described the vote as a “dark day for Georgia’s democracy”.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned that the bill was “incompatible with EU values and standards”, meaning it could affect Georgia’s application into the bloc.
The draft legislation is being compared to the laws seen in Russia because the Kremlin created its own “foreign agents” law in 2012 which now included Western-funded NGOs and media.
Georgia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991 – but Russia invaded the east European country in 2008, and still occupies 20% of Georgia to this day.
The Georgian Dream party is currently in power, and has been accused of re-aligning itself with the Kremlin. Seventy-six members of that party supported the law, even after a brawl broke out at a committee hearing about the proposed bill.
One pro-government MP even slapped the leader of the largest opposing party.
Confusingly, the country’s president Salome Zourabichvili told protesters from New York that she was by their side, adding: “Today, you represent free Georgia. Georgia, which sees its future in Europe, will not allow anyone to take away this future.”
But, the Georgia prime minister Giorgi Garibashvili has reaffirmed his support for the law, saying it met “European and global standards”.
Other post-Soviet states – Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan – have already replicated the Russian “foreign agents” law.