Tbilisi, Georgia – Beads of sweat gather on Zviad Tsetskhladze’s forehead as he shouts into a megaphone with his fist clenched on this sultry summer evening.

“Sakartvelo!” shouts the 19-year-old student from the Black Sea city of Batumi – using Georgia’s birth name before going on to a series of catchy pro-European slogans.

In the crowd, thousands of demonstrators snake around the towering parliament building in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

They repeat his words as rows of carefully dressed police officers watch with stony faces.

Since April, Georgia, a small mountainous country at the crossroads of Asia and Europe known for its rich cuisine and tradition of hospitality, has been rocked by protests against a controversial “foreign agent” law.

The bill, which was finally passed in May, requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.”

But for many young protesters, it is not yet time to accept defeat. They continue to put pressure on the ruling Georgian Dream party, which is seeking a fourth term in power in parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.

Tsetskhladze, a leading organizer of a student protest group, told Al Jazeera that the bill addressed broader concerns raised by protesters, such as corruption among the ruling elite and a political shift away from the EU, which Georgia gained accession status for in December.

The country’s claim to become a full member of the EU is enshrined in its constitution.

Critics say the law is similar to Russian legislation already used to suppress dissent and represents a sudden pro-Russian turn by the Georgian government.

According to social policy analyst Mariami Svimonishvili, Generation Z in Georgia – those born between 1997 and 2012 – is determined to signal their opposition to the Georgian Dream, which they believe is coming under Russian influence.

“Generation Z is very interested in politics. They are very confident and very grounded,” she said, placing an English-language novel, Ernest Hemingway's “The Old Man and the Sea,” on her lap as protesters draped in Georgian and EU flags walked past.

“They’re talking on TikTok about the bill and what exactly it means for the country,” she said.

Generation Z is also haunted by memories of the five-day violent conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008, which spanned the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, she noted, adding weight to a perceived turn away from Europe and towards Russia.

The aim of the protesters is now to “tired out” the government before the elections.

Tsetskhladze said the law represented a “collapse of democracy” and that he and his fellow students at the National University, who had just returned from a strike, were planning to launch a boycott of Russian products.

The aim is to further build on the momentum, he explained.

A window of opportunity

Davit Metreveli, a 25-year-old tour guide who has been taking part in the demonstrations since April, said there was now a “window of opportunity” in which opposition parties could gain support, especially among the “European-minded younger generation”, to topple the government.

Metreveli said the Georgian Dream initially supported Georgian ambitions to join the EU when it was launched by billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili in 2012.

In recent years, however, there have been signs that the party – and especially Ivanishvili, who made his money in Russia – is moving closer to Moscow.

The Ukrainian flag is ubiquitous in Tbilisi, whether as graffiti on walls or hanging above buildings, and Metreveli cites the Russian invasion of Ukraine as another example of why Georgians should fear the government's pro-Russian orientation.

The Georgian government does not support Western sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, and Ivanishvili has failed to publicly condemn the invasion of Ukraine.

Although it is “unrealistic” to impose sanctions against an important trading partner such as Russia, says Metreveli, the inability of the Georgian ruling party to publicly take a stand against the Russian invasion has shown “its true face”.

Although the new law does not appear particularly subversive on paper, Georgians, who have lived in the Russian sphere of influence since Georgia gained independence in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, fear how it could be used.

“When you look at the details, you see that the law is being used to enforce control over everything,” says Metreveli.

Eka Gigauri, executive director of Transparency International, told Al Jazeera that the bill was “just a symptom; this is about Russian influence, a hybrid war, a generational struggle.”

She said the bill would require the organization to disclose confidential information, but she would refuse to do so.

They face the threat of having their funds frozen, after first paying a fine of 25,000 lari ($8,757) and then 20,000 lari ($7,005) for each month of non-compliance. Finally, individuals will also be penalized.

Nevertheless, many young people are likely to stay and work for the organization, which investigates corruption – including among Georgian government officials – because of its strength and commitment to the anti-government movement.

Gigauri added that she and her family have faced threats for exposing government corruption, and the law further silences their work.

Viktor Kvitatiani, a lawyer with Transparency International, which provides legal assistance to arrested protesters, says about 300 people have been arrested and fines totaling nearly $350,000 have been imposed.

The riot police, who used tear gas and water cannons against the demonstrators, are accused of beating them.

A corrupt opposition

Demonstrators like Sandro Vakhtangadze, a soft-spoken 19-year-old student, are taking a more moderate approach to the protests.

Sitting alone on a wall in front of parliament, he said it was unrealistic to expect a small country like Georgia to break off relations with its neighbour Russia, but “we have to start somewhere”.

He will vote for the first time in October, but has not yet decided which opposition party he will support.

Georgia's opposition parties have promised to form a “pro-European” coalition in response to the new law.

According to Swimonischwili, the anti-government sentiment among young people does not necessarily lead to unconditional support for opposition parties, as many of their leaders are tainted by their ties to former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Saakashvili was President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013 and was arrested in October 2021 after returning to Georgia from Ukraine. He is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for “abuse of office”.

“The last government was very pro-Western,” Swimonischwili said, speaking of a sense of national “trauma” felt by some young voters because of their time in office.