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The sound ricocheted through an otherwise pacific quiet hanging over Lia. A series of staccato snaps from firecrackers thrown out across the road by a troop of perhaps 20 teenagers, making certain and steady progress through the small village nestled at the foot of the Svanetian mountains, where the day was bright and cold and blue.
For all its earnestness and sincerity, Monday afternoon’s demonstration felt far more than just 215 miles from those currently raging on the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, after the ruling party announced last Thursday it would be suspending the South Caucasian nation’s constitutionally-enshrined bid for EU membership.
Georgian Dream’s decision to nix this historically Western-facing country’s long-held aspirations for European integration followed just hours after the European parliament had voted, by vast majority, to reject Georgia’s October 26th parliamentary polls as rigged, calling for a new election to be held within a year and sanctions brought against those responsible for stealing the recent vote.
Violence Erupts in Georgia After Government Suspends EU Accession Bid
Critics say the ruling Georgian Dream party has twice this week violated the country’s constitution following parliamentary elections now slammed by the EU as rigged
Garnering praise from Russian President Putin and prompting the suspension of an almost 15 year strategic partnership with the United States, the disputed government’s move represents the latest episode of an ongoing descent into violent authoritarianism critics say is designed to leverage Georgia, a former Soviet state that fought its own wars with Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in 2008 and the early 1990s, back into the Kremlin’s good graces following the launch of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a country where more than 80% of people have expressed support for EU membership, hundreds of thousands have turned out for the gathering protests in Tbilisi over the past five nights. More than 250 have been arrested so far, with reports fast emerging of horrific violence visited on those detained by gangs of masked, black-clothed operatives under the command of Zviad ‘Khareba’ Kharazishvili.
A feared senior Interior Ministry official, Khareba was sanctioned by the US this September for his role in overseeing what the State Department described as “brutal crackdowns on peaceful protestors and political opponents” during a spate of demonstrations earlier in April and May.
Members of the mounting anti-government movement, bracing for what may prove a long and bitter fight, are beginning to adapt their tactics, with a particular focus on maintaining the mobility of simultaneous gatherings held at different locations so as to frustrate and confuse increasingly stretched and exhausted enforcement authorities.
Videos shared on social media show protesters blasting fireworks in rapid succession at lines of riot forces from custom-made launchers. Some have taken to using oil-filled balloons to impede their pursuers as they escape, while others have been seen carrying cut-off water jugs to neutralise tear gas canisters, for now as much a staple of Tbilisi nights as darkly thundering techno at the city’s clubs, Saperavi wine at its bars, or khinkali dumplings at its restaurants.
Buoyed by a growing number of diplomatic resignations, including Georgia’s ambassadors to Italy and the US, and letters of dissent from inside different ministries, the crowds have also lately been swelled by the sheer number of people travelling in from outside the capital, some of them expats who’ve spent up to thousands of pounds on last-minute flights home from Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, even Los Angeles.
But for many, perhaps the most extraordinary development is how the protests have within a matter of days spread like wildfire to almost every corner of the country, with other rallies now being held in the major urban centres of Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi, Zugdidi, Gori and Telavi, as well as more than 25 smaller cities, towns, villages and hamlets.
“That so many protests are taking place in other cities, outside Tbilisi, shows the extraordinary situation in Georgia at the moment,” said Hans Gutbrod, a professor of public policy at Tbilisi’s Ilia State University. “Traditionally, protests have only taken place in the capital. Seeing citizens in so many places have come out shows how strong the groundswell of opinion is, and how many people feel that Georgian Dream is trying to steal their future.”