Lawmakers in Georgia gasped as a parliamentary committee debated a controversial “foreign agents” law that critics say is modeled after draconian legislation in place in neighboring Russia.

Videos broadcast from inside the parliament building in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, showed a brief but violent altercation between lawmakers, when the chairman of the body’s legal affairs committee appeared to hit the leader of the opposition United National Movement party, which opposes law.

The ruling coalition led by the Georgian Dream party announced last month that it supports the bill, which will also have to go through other approval stages before becoming law.

The law would require organizations that receive at least 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” and put them under surveillance by the Justice Department or face heavy fines.

Critics of the law compare it to a 2012 Russian law that has been steadily expanded since then and is being used to crack down on civil society and independent media in Russia. They say the law signals a shift toward totalitarianism in Georgia.

Irakli Pavlenishvili, a civil rights activist and opposition politician, said: “The Russian legislation now proposed in parliament is against Georgia’s national interests, it is against our European aspirations.”

“The entire international and Georgian community agrees on this issue.”

According to the OC-Media news website, Irakli Berea, a member of parliament from the ruling Georgian Dream party, called those opposed to the law “spies”. The party says it remains committed to the country joining the European Union one day.

Georgian President Salome Zourabisvili has said she will veto the bill which, if passed, she said would jeopardize Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union and NATO. Parliament can override a presidential veto.

Last month more than 60 civil society organizations and media outlets said they would not comply if the law was passed.