Protesters have smashed barriers at Georgia’s parliament after it approved a divisive “foreign agents” bill.
Riot police used tear gas and sprayed crowds with water cannon as they entered the grounds of the Georgian parliament in the capital Tbilisi.
Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, who is covering the protests in Tbilisi, said there was a “febrile atmosphere” and a “real sense anger, frustration and massive disappointment” that MPs voted for the bill.
Image: Hundreds of law enforcement officers guarded parliament. Pic: Reuters
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0:48
Protesters break through parliament barricades
The legislation is seen by some as threatening press and civic freedomsand there are concerns it’s modelled on laws used by President Vladimir Putin in neighbouring Russia.
The proposed law would require media and non-governmental organisations and other non-profit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
Demonstrations have engulfed Georgia for weeks ahead of the bill’s final reading on Tuesday.
Image: Police used a spray to keep back the crowds. Pic: AP
Image: Pic: David Mdzinarishvili/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Critics also see it as a threat to the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.
The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests.
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Image: Pic: Reuters
Image: Authorities were seen detaining protesters near the parliament building. Pic: Reuters
Opponents have denounced the bill as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatise independent news media and organisations critical of the Kremlin.
A brawl erupted in the parliament as MPs were debating the bill on Tuesday.
Georgian Dream MP Dimitry Samkharadze was seen charging towards Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of main opposition party United National Movement, after Mr Khabeishvili accused him of organising mobs to beat up opposition supporters.
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Fighting in Georgia’s parliament
‘Absolutely insane’
Former Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili called the bill a “joke” and a “replica” of one introduced by Vladimir Putin to “control his own society” in Russia.
He said the Georgian people would “not fall under that mistake” and that protesters were standing “firm, calm, peaceful and for freedom”.
“We will not let them prevail. We will overcome,” he told Sky News.
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2:45
Protesters angry after ‘Russian law’ passes
A protester said it was “absolutely insane that a country like Georgia has accepted this bill as it’s a complete violation for our future”.
The medical student said the bill “makes us more far away from Europe and the rest of the world”, while bringing Georgia closer to the Russian government.
Another protester outside parliament said: “Our government is a Russian government, we don’t want Russia, Russia is never the way, I’m Georgian and therefore I am European.”
One demonstrator said they had been trying to protest “peacefully” but were now “feeling anger, pain and disappointment that again in our history there is a government that goes against our wishes”.
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The president of the European Parliament has shown support for the Georgian people in a post on social media.
“Tbilisi, we hear you! We see you!” Roberta Metsola said.
Alex Scrivener, director of the Democratic Security Institute, said there was time for the law to be turned around.
He told Sky News: “The law passing isn’t the end of the vote.
“The president of Georgia who is aligned with the protesters can veto legislation and that buys us time.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto it but her decision can be overridden by another vote in parliament, controlled by the ruling party and its allies.
A passenger bus burst into flames after a motorbike crashed into it, killing at least 25 people and injuring several others in southern India.
A fire ripped through the bus within minutes early on Friday, trapping dozens of passengers as it sped along a highway near Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh state.
Some people managed to break windows, leaping to safety with minor injuries, while others were charred to death, senior police official Vikrant Patil said.
Image: Volunteers working amid the debris of the bus. Pic: AP
There were 44 passengers on board, most of whom were asleep at the time of the crash.
The bus was gutted and the unidentified bike rider also died, Mr Patil said.
The accident occurred in Chinnatekuru village near Kurnool, around 130 miles (210 kilometres) south of Hyderabad.
The bus was travelling between the cities of Hyderabad in Telangana state and Bengaluru in Karnataka state.
The motorbike rammed into the speeding bus from behind and became stuck, Mr Patil said. It was dragged for some distance, causing sparks that engulfed the bus’s fuel tank.
“As the smoke started spreading, the driver stopped the bus and tried to put the fire out by using a fire extinguisher, but the fire was so intense he couldn’t control it,” Mr Patil said.
A team of forensic experts was investigating the incident.
India‘s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered his condolences to the bereaved families.
The makers of the furniture lift used by the Louvre thieves have told Sky News the device is “certainly not intended for burglaries” after publishing a tongue-in-cheek advert making the most of the product’s sudden fame.
Bocker manufactures the Agilo furniture lift that was used in Sunday’s daring daytime heist.
The day after thieves made off with a haul of France’s Crown Jewels worth €88m (£76m), the firm posted a photograph showing the lift inside the police cordon next to the Parismuseum with the tagline “when you need to move fast”.
Posted on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, it shows the vehicle’s ladder propped up against the side of the building, telling prospective buyers the lift can carry “up to 400kg of treasures at 42m per minute – as quiet as a whisper”.
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CEO Alexander Bocker told Sky News he and his wife, marketing manager Julia Scharwatz, realised their product had been used in the heist when they saw photos from the scene on Sunday afternoon.
“We were shocked that our lift had been completely misused for this robbery, as it is not approved for transporting people,” he said. “And certainly not intended for burglaries.
“Once the initial shock had subsided and it was clear that no one had been injured, black humour took over.
“We brainstormed a bit and played slogan ping pong. My wife finalised it with her marketing team on Monday morning.”
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Moment thieves escape Louvre in jewel heist
Users have generally seen the funny side, with one Instagram comment saying the post “might be the best ad I’ve seen this year” and another suggesting the company deserves “the Oscar for the cleverest advertising”.
Mr Bocker said “99% of the feedback ” has been “thoroughly positive”. “We understand that not everyone shares this sense of humour. Humour rarely, if ever, appeals to everyone, but the vast majority laughed heartily.”
As of Friday afternoon, more than 40,000 people had liked the post on Instagram.
The CEO said his company has had enquiries from around the world and “many congratulations on our successful marketing campaign”.
Image: A police officer swabs the lift for any traces of evidence. Pic: Louvre
The lift used by the thieves belonged to one of the firm’s customers, who rents out furniture lifts in the Greater Paris area, he explained.
“During a demonstration on how to use the furniture lift, it was apparently stolen and reported as such by our customer,” Mr Bocker said. “It appears that the company’s branding has been removed and the number plates replaced.”
The Louvre reopened to visitors on Wednesday, having shut shortly after the heist took place on Sunday morning.
The eight stolen objects remain missing and the thieves, who escaped on motorbikes, are still at large.
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2:36
Louvre: How ‘heist of the century’ unfolded
Museum director Laurence des Cars offered to resign when she appeared before French senators on Wednesday, admitting that the four-minute raid was a “terrible failure” and that the site’s security cameras, which do not offer full coverage of the building’s facade, were inadequate.
US sanctions against Russia’s two largest energy companies, the state-owned Rosneft and privately held Lukoil, are perhaps the most significant economic measures imposed by the West since the invasion of Ukraine.
If fully implemented, they have the potential to significantly choke off the flow of fossil fuel revenue that funds Russia’s war machine, but their power lies not in directly denying Russia access to the tankers, ports and refineries that make the oil trade turn, but the US financial system that greases the wheels.
Ever since the invasion, the Russian government has proved masterful at evading sanctions, aided and abetted by allies of economic convenience and an oil industry with decades of experience.
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2:58
New US sanctions on Russia: What do we know?
While the West, principally the EU, has largely turned off the taps and stopped buying Russian oil, China, India and Turkey became the largest consumers, with a shadow fleet of tankers ensuring exports continued to flow.
Data from the Centre for Research into Energy and Clean Air (CREA) shows that while fossil fuel revenues have fallen from more than €1bn a day before the war, they have remained above €600m since the start of 2023, only dipping towards €500m in the last month.
None of that oil has been heading for the US, but these sanctions will directly impact the ability of the Russian companies, and anyone doing business with them, to operate within America’s financial orbit.
According to the order from the US Office for Foreign Asset Control, the sanctions block all assets of the two companies, their subsidiaries and a number of named individuals, as well as preventing US citizens or financial institutions from doing business with them.
It also threatens foreign financial institutions that “facilitate transactions… involving Russia’s military-industrial base” with direct or secondary sanctions.
Image: Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting in Moscow.
Pic: Sputnik/Reuters
In practice, the measures should prevent the two companies from accessing not just dollars, but trading markets, insurance and other services with any financial connection to the US.
Taken in harness with similar steps announced by the UK earlier this month, analysts believe they can have a genuinely chilling effect on the market for Russian oil and gas.
Russia’s customers for oil in China, India and Turkey will also be affected, with the largest companies, state-owned and private, expected to be unwilling to take the risk of engaging directly with sanctioned entities.
Indian companies are already reported to be “recalibrating” their imports following the announcement, which came just a week after Donald Trump announced an additional 25% import tariff on Indian goods as punishment for the country’s reliance on Russian oil.
That does not mean that Russian oil and gas exports will cease. There are other unsanctioned Russian energy companies that can still trade, and ever since the first barrel of oil was tapped, the industry has proved adept at evading sanctions intended to interrupt its flow from one country or another.
Any significant increase in the oil price beyond the 5% seen in the aftermath of the announcement could also put pressure on the White House, which is at least as sensitive to fuel prices at home as it is to foreign wars.
But analysts Kpler expect the sanctions to cause “an immediate, short-term hiatus in Russian crude exports, as it will take time for sellers to reorganise and rebuild their trading systems to circumvent restrictions and ease buyers’ concerns”.
And Russian gas will, for now, continue to flow into Europe, where distaste for Vladimir Putin‘s imperial ambitions has not killed the appetite for his fuel. While the EU has this week imposed sanctions on liquified natural gas (LNG), they will not be fully enforced until 2027.