A fistfight erupted between politicians in Georgia's parliament on Monday over a controversial bill regulating "foreign agents" that has been likened to legislation in neighbouring Russia.
Video from inside the parliament building in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, showed a brief but violent brawl after the chairman of the chamber's legal affairs committee appeared to strike the leader of the United National Movement opposition party, which opposes the law.
The governing Georgian Dream bloc last month announced that it supported the legislation, which still needs to pass other approval stages before it can become law.
The law would require organisations receiving more than 20 per cent of their funding from overseas to register as "foreign agents", and submit to monitoring by the justice ministry, or face hefty fines.
Critics have compared it to a 2012 Russian law, which has been used to crack down on Russia's civil society and independent media.
Russian influence is a loaded subject in Georgia as one fifth of the country's internationally recognised territory is under occupation by Kremlin-backed separatists.
The proposed law casts fears of an authoritarian shift in Georgia.
"The Russian legislation that now is proposed in parliament is against Georgia's national interests, against our European aspirations," Irakli Pavlenishvili, a civil rights activist and opposition politician said.
"The whole international community and Georgian community is agreed on this topic".
However, Givi Mikanadze, from the Georgian Dream alliance, told national television: "Georgian society absolutely deserves to know which organisations are being financed, from which sources.
"We are talking about transparency and having an obligation (to the Georgian people)."
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili is against the bill and said the law would endanger Georgia's hopes of joining the European Union and NATO.
Georgia applied for membership to the EU in March 2022, and has been given a list of reforms by the bloc to make it eligible to join.
It made its bid for NATO in the 1990s and in 2008 was promised a seat at the table once it met the requirements.
Ms Zourabichvili said she would veto the law, however a parliamentary majority can override a presidential veto.
Last month, more than 60 civil society organisations and media outlets said they would not comply with the legislation if it becomes law.
The comparative law has been steadily expanded upon in Russia in the decade since its introduction.
Today, Russia deigns any person who receives 'support' or is under 'influence' from outside of Russia as a foreign agent.
That 'support' or 'influence' is not only monetary under expansions of the law. The definition includes carrying out an "activity in favour" of foreign entities.
Citizens who are declared a foreign agent under the law are subject to surveillance and cannot hold political positions.
ABC/ Reuters
