Protests in Georgia spread as PM defies US condemnation

TBILISI — Protesters and police skirmished in Georgia's capital for a fourth straight night on Sunday (Dec 1), with signs that opposition was spreading across the country to the government's decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.

Tensions have been rising for months in the country of 3.7 million people between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western and pro-Russian policies.

The crisis has deepened since Thursday's announcement that the government would freeze EU talks for four years, with thousands of pro-EU demonstrators facing off against police armed with tear gas and water cannon.

Protesters gathered again in Tbilisi on Sunday night on central Rustaveli Avenue, tossing fireworks at police, who responded with volleys of water cannon.

Well after midnight, after hours of standoff, police began moving demonstrators away from the parliament building and down Rustaveli Avenue towards the Tbilisi opera house and began erecting barricades with whatever materials they could find.

"Quite frankly, it's been very tiring to see that our government does not hear what the people desire," said protester Nikoloz Miruashvili.

"I'm here for a very simple reason, to defend my European future and the democracy of my country."

Four opposition groups urged protesters to demand paid leave from their jobs under the labour code to attend protests and asked employers to provide the time off.

Georgia's pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili called for pressure to be brought on the Constitutional Court to annul elections last month won by Georgian Dream. Both the opposition and Zourabichvili say the poll was rigged.

Beyond the capital, Georgian news agency Interpress said demonstrators had blocked an access road into the country's main commercial port in the Black Sea city of Poti.

Georgian media reported protests in at least eight cities and towns. Opposition TV channel Formula showed footage of people in Khashuri, a town of 20,000 in central Georgia, throwing eggs at the local Georgian Dream office.

The EU and the United States are alarmed by what they see as Georgia's shift away from a pro-Western path and back towards Russia's orbit. Georgian Dream says it is acting to defend the country's sovereignty against outside interference.

'Dark abyss'

Russia is following developments closely. Security official Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, said an attempted revolution was taking place and wrote on Telegram that Georgia was "moving rapidly along the Ukrainian path, into the dark abyss. Usually this sort of thing ends very badly."

The Kremlin itself has yet to comment, but has long accused the West of fomenting revolutions in post-Soviet countries that Moscow still regards as part of its sphere of influence.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze dismissed criticism by the United States, which has condemned the use of "excessive force" against demonstrators.

Kobakhidze also shrugged off Washington's announcement on Saturday that it was suspending a strategic partnership with Georgia. He said this was a "temporary event", and Georgia would talk to the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump when it takes office in January.

President Zourabichvili said on Saturday she would not step down when her term ends this month, saying the new parliament was illegitimate and had no authority to name her successor.

Kobakhidze said he understood Zourabichvili's "emotional state".

"But of course on December 29 she will have to leave her residence and surrender this building to a legitimately elected president," he said.

'Foreign agents'

Hundreds of diplomats and civil servants have signed open letters saying the suspension of EU talks is unlawful as the goal of joining the bloc is enshrined in Georgia's constitution.

Georgia's foreign ministry said that foreign states were trying to "interfere in the functioning of the institutions of a sovereign state", and such action was unacceptable.

For much of the period since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has leaned strongly towards the West and tried to loosen the influence of Russia, to which it lost a brief war in 2008. It has been promised eventual Nato membership, and became an official candidate for EU entry last year.

But domestic opponents and Western governments have become concerned that Georgian Dream is intent — despite its denials — on abandoning that course. In June, it enacted a law obliging non-governmental organisations to register as "foreign agents" if they received more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad. Parliament in September approved a law curbing LGBT rights.

The government says it is defending the country's sovereignty and trying to prevent it from suffering the fate of Ukraine by being dragged into a new war with Russia.

The EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who took office on Sunday, voiced solidarity with the demonstrators.

"We stand with the Georgian people and their choice for a European future," she posted on X.

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