Riots broke out outside Georgia’s parliament after the “foreign agents” bill – condemned as an act of Kremlin-inspired repression – was passed on Tuesday.

The riot police outside the parliament used tear gas against the crowd that had gathered, resulting in some protesters needing medical attention. The police then made arrests.

After the law was passed, the MPs fled the building with the help of a special escort in order to avoid the angry crowd outside.

In the afternoon and after the protesters were cheering the MAT suddenly withdrew back to the parliament building with the protesters remaining outside the parliament

The deputies were caught red-handed

Violence spread across the chamber, with a dozen MPs caught in handcuffs and one MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, Dimitri Samharadze, lunging at Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of the main opposition United National Movement party, after Khabeishvili shoved him accused of organizing the mob to beat up opposition supporters.

According to the law, media or civil society groups in Georgia that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad must register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.”

Georgia’s parliament today approved the third and final vote on the bill on foreign agents that has sparked a political crisis in the South Caucasus country.

The bill can be vetoed by Georgian President Salome Zourabisvili, but parliament can override it by holding an additional vote on the bill.

In the vote, MPs supported the proposals put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party by 84 votes to 30, after weeks of debate and several fights in the assembly hall. Crowds gathered outside the parliament building with banners, whistles, vuvuzelas, even banging pots and pans in an attempt to be heard by lawmakers during the debate.