Georgia: political crisis and Russian threats

On 15 November 2014, the centre of Tbilisi saw the first significant demonstration by the opposition United National Movement (UNM) in more than two years. Protesters under the banner of preventing the ‘annexation of Abkhazia by Russia’, supporting the exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili, criticised the Georgian Dream government for failing to take decisive action in this matter. The demonstration coincided with tensions within the ruling camp. On 14 November, using the issue of Abkhazia as an excuse, President Giorgi Margvelashvili gave a speech in parliament including a veiled criticism of the informal leader of Georgian Dream, the former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, for his opaque, behind-the-scenes management of the government. He also stated that some of the actions taken by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili (allowing the most pro-Western politicians, including the defence minister Irakli Alasania, to resign from the government) may adversely affect Georgia’s pro-Western foreign policy.