Weeks of mass street demonstrations continue across the country of Georgia protesting the authoritarian pro-Moscow government led by the Georgian Dream party. Protesters are demanding a rerun of the October parliamentary elections, which they insist were rigged. Daily actions have been mounted since Nov. 28 when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced his decision to postpone talks on Georgia joining the European Union until at least 2028.
On New Year’s Eve, tens of thousands demonstrated through the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. “We won’t give up,” protester Ruso told the Militant Jan. 1. “Our demand remains for new elections, that’s what we deserve. It doesn’t matter if some of us are beat up by the cops or arrested, we don’t leave anyone behind. We are fighting for each other.”
On Dec. 28 thousands participated in a human chain outside the parliament building and along several bridges in Tbilisi. Protesters carried banners saying, “We demand fresh elections,” and “Freedom for political prisoners.”
“Everyone must understand that the protests will not stop until all the demands are met,” demonstrator Teimuraz Tsiklauri, a 23-year-old student, told Agence France-Presse.
Similar rallies were held in Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Poti, Samtredia, Rustavi, Gori, Khashuri, Telavi, Gurjaani and other cities.
Over the past month riot police have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators. The interior ministry admits more than 400 people have been arrested. Dozens have been hospitalized. The protests have led to growing rifts within the government, with the country’s top human rights official, ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, joining Amnesty International in accusing police forces of “torturing” some of those detained.
More protests occurred Dec. 29 after the ruling party’s Mikheil Kavelashvili was sworn in as Georgia’s new president. The previous president, Salome Zourabichvili, refused to recognize Kavelashvili’s election. She joined protesters in demanding new elections. She addressed demonstrators outside the presidential palace and then left it, despite earlier promises to refuse to give up her seat.
The Georgian Dream government, which has been in office for 12 years, was formed and bankrolled by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a multibillionaire capitalist with banking and steel interests in Russia. Its policy of acquiescence to President Vladimir Putin’s regime in Moscow is opposed by most of the 3.7 million people in Georgia, a former Soviet republic on the southeast corner of the Black Sea.
Many Georgian working people see strong links between what they face today and the long fight by toilers in Ukraine to defend their sovereignty against Moscow’s attacks. When Putin launched his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, 30,000 people turned out in Tbilisi to protest.
Russian troops invaded Georgia in 2008 and still remain in two statelets Moscow created, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.