There were gripping scenes inside and outside the Georgian parliament—including the sight of Georgian opposition lawmaker Aleko Elisashvili punching the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, in the head—on April 15 as a controversial “foreign agents” bill passed a committee-stage vote.
Mdinaradze was physically attacked by Elisashvili as he attempted to introduce the bill, which has caused a lot of division in Georgia because of its similarity to Russian legislation used by the Kremlin to silence critics and severely limit the work of non-profit groups and media that received funding from the West.
"You Russian motherf***er," Elisashvili shouted as he rushed to the front of the room and struck Mdinaradze.
Despite the attack, Mdinaradze seemed fine and, though there were a few minutes of mayhem, the discussions over the bill quickly resumed.
"We will give a proper response," Mdinaradze said.
Elisashvili was thrown out of the debating room after the incident.
People had different reactions to what happened—some condemned the violence while others seemed to celebrate it, even making memes about Elisashvili as if he'd won a mixed martial arts fight.
Watch the attached video for more.
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