Ani Chkhikvadze

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Protesters clash with police in central Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday. (Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoCáucaso

Running through an eerie blue fog, I darted into a church just across from Georgia’s parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue. Masked riot police were chasing protesters through clouds of tear gas. It clings to your lungs and makes every breath a struggle.

Inside, people rinsed each other’s eyes with saline eyewashes to stop the burning. But police exploded more gas canisters at the doors of the church — a symbol of sanctuary during the 1989 anti-Soviet protests — and it too started to fill with smoke. I thought, “I shouldn’t have entered this enclosed space”. But stepping outside meant risking arrest.…  Seguir leyendo »

Georgia's leader of the United National Movement, Nika Melia, shouts from a window of his party's headquarters as the police raid the building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Feb. 23. (Vano Shlamov/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoCáucaso

One hundred years ago today, in February 1921, the Red Army marched into Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia. On that day, Georgia found itself under Soviet occupation and lost its freedom and place in the West. On Tuesday, Georgia once again stumbled on its Western path, as police forces stormed the main opposition party’s headquarters and arrested its leader, Nika Melia.

The United States and its European allies have been warning the current Georgian government to stick by the rules of democratic fair play. Now any such sense of restraint on the part of the authorities has fallen away.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters demanding the government's resignation and early parliamentary polls rally in front of Parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday. (Vano Shlamov/AFP via Getty Images)

MundoCáucaso

The main thoroughfare of Tbilisi, known as Rustaveli Avenue, has borne witness to many a political reversal, from civil war to revolution. Since this summer, the tree-lined boulevard has once again seen throngs of protesters rise up against eccentric billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has ruled the country, both formally as prime minister and informally as the ultimate decision-maker behind his Georgian Dream party, since 2012. The protests are entering a critical phrase this week, and their success or failure could determine the democratic trajectory and geopolitical future of Georgia.

Since his ascent to power, Ivanishvili — an oligarch-turned-politician — has attempted to warm relations with Russia, which occupies 20 percent of Georgia’s territory.…  Seguir leyendo »