The wave of unrest which has gripped Georgia since the ruling Georgian Dream party (GD) announced that the country would be suspending its EU membership bid continues, with fierce protests in the capital backed by an unprecedented nationwide resistance movement.

The evening of December 1 saw over 100,000 pro-EU demonstrators descend once again on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue, gathering for the fourth consecutive night outside the parliament building, which, with its scorched columns, smashed windows and graffitied walls, bears all the marks of a battleground. 

On November 28, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that Georgia would be delaying its EU accession process until 2028, and added that his government would not accept any EU funding until that date.

Protests began the same evening, with thousands taking to the streets in Tbilisi to defend their future in the EU – something 80% of Georgians support and a provision enshrined in the country’s constitution – and demand a new round of parliamentary elections under international supervision, following widespread accusations of fraud in the October 26 general election which gave GD 54% of the vote.

Unrest on the streets has formed one part of a growing resistance movement which has seen Georgian ambassadors, judges, civil servants, government, officials, athletes, teachers and, most recently, senior Ministry of Internal Affairs official Giorgi Gabekhadze publicly condemn the recent violence deployed against protesters by government authorities and express their solidarity with protesters and Georgia’s European path. 

Over the last four nights, the crowds on Rustaveli have clashed frequently with the security services, who use tear gas, water cannons, pepper spray and brute force to steadily push demonstrators back and eventually clear the protest site fully by morning.

However, the protest on December 1 was marked by a new level of violence from special forces officers and riot police, who, having forcefully dispersed the crowds who still remained on Rustaveli on the morning of December 2, deployed ambush and encirclement tactics to violently intercept and arrest individuals. 

Jurab Japaridze, a prominent leader of the opposition bloc, Coalition for Change, was arrested and placed in an unmarked car by masked officers in Vake, a residential area north of Rustaveli Avenue, at least an hour after the crowd had been broken up by police. He has reportedly now been released.

Coalition for Change’s Marika Mikiashvili told bne IntelliNews, how, until the night of December 1, a “gentlemen's agreement” had generally ensured that police crackdowns would by default be confined to Rustaveli Avenue, meaning protesters could leave the street with a guarantee of their safety. 

Yet, following the violent dispersal of the protest crowd around 7am on December 2, black-clad special forces officers pursued groups of demonstrators up Rustaveli, through the whole of the Vake area, to Saburtalo, a residential area around 5km away from the parliament protest site. Morning commuters looked on in shock and horror as dozens of protesters darted between the standstill rush hour traffic on Tbilisi’s busiest arteries, EU and Georgian flags streaming behind them, pursued by police in balaclavas.

“They are trying to ambush people from the side streets now,” said Mikiashvili, explaining how smaller groups of “thugs” mobilised in the side streets off both Rustaveli Avenue and Chavchavadze Avenue, the main artery running through Vake. That meant demonstrators fleeing the main body of police behind them could not escape down smaller streets off these main roads, as they would be intercepted by the breakaway groups.

“The most concerning issue is the growing practice of encircling protest participants. Even during dispersal, special forces must allow citizens to leave the area freely,” stated a report by human rights watchdog the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, which was among the NGOs that presented evidence of electoral violations on polling day to the country’s constitutional court. The watchdog’s report also noted the use of tear gas in enclosed spaces and chemicals in water cannons, which irritates the skin and eyes and causes respiratory problems.

“[December 1] was the first protest where the aim of police was not to clear [Rustaveli] avenue but to actually punish protesters,” Mikiashvili said. “Before people could shelter in buildings and the metro and then could eventually go home, but this morning they told people to go into the metro but then chased them in and dragged them off the escalators and beat them,” she continued.

During the raid on Rustaveli metro station on the morning of December 2, Giorgi Chagelishvili, a reporter for the local news platform Mautskebeli, was arrested, and others were dragged off the escalators and beaten.

On November 30, Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili Writing on X on December 2, the president highlighted multiple reports by lawyers that many demonstrators who were arrested in the last four nights “have been subject to systematic beatings between arrest and transport to already overcrowded detention facilities”.

GD officials have denied the violence, with Kobakhidze on December 2 accusing the country’s “foreign-funded” domestic opposition forces of “inciting violence” during the protests, claiming they are “sacrificing” young people to “severe punishments”. 

In a press briefing on the same day, the speaker in the GD-majority parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, defended the authorities’ actions, stating that “the state is the only entity with the legitimate right and obligation to use force to prevent crime and protect its citizens. This obligation becomes especially evident in the face of a violent mass protest.”

But, as bne IntelliNews reported on December 1, the police’s brutality has only strengthened protesters’ resolve. “Right now I am happy, maybe after a couple of hours I will be beaten up but it’s okay,” said Katya, a demonstrator in her mid-30s, early in the evening on November 30. 

The increasing use of fireworks to repel approaching police cordons is emerging as a nightly strategy, and was particularly effective on the night of December 1 during a surreal standoff between police firing water cannons from the parliament main entrance and protesters on the street shooting back fireworks. 

“The fireworks deterred them for a long time last night,” Mikiashvili told bne IntelliNews on December 2, “I think people are getting better with tactics. It’s still a long way to go but it’s getting better.” 

Protesters do appear more organised by the day. The barricades being constructed are more robust and are being ignited to pose more of a hazard to police when they try to breach them. The fireworks being let off are of a more sophisticated launcher type and hits are more targeted. Teenagers dart through the crowd dousing eyes irritated by tear gas in saline solution, and some carry bottles of cooking oil which they pour on canisters thrown into the crowd by police, reducing the potency of the gas somewhat.

On several occasions during the violent dispersal on the morning of December 2, outnumbered police officers in the act of beating fallen individuals were forced to flee after groups of protesters charged at them.

While the protests remain decentralised, there seems to be some effective strategising going on among demonstrators, who look set to become more coordinated and better armed in the coming nights.

The last 48 hours have seen an eruption of protests in Georgia’s regions too, with new demonstration sites continuing to appear in cities large and small around the country. On the night of December 1, 18 settlements saw some sort of action, from thousands marching in big towns like Batumi, Kutaisi and Rustavi, to a few hundred protesters coming out in villages of 10,000 or less. Early in the evening on December 2, people began to gather in Samtredia, a town in the Imereti region and home of Kakha Kaladze, secretary general of the Georgian Dream party and mayor of Tbilisi.

Meanwhile, hundreds of students at schools and universities across Georgia are boycotting classes and holding protests outside their institutions. As of December 2 students in Tbilisi, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Zugdidi, Telavi and Gori are reported to be striking in solidarity with protesters in the capital.