Protests Engulf Georgia

Over the past five days, dozens of protesters and police have been hospitalized as anti-government protests engulf Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. In scenes reminiscent of Ukraine’s 2014 uprising against a president accused of abandoning European integration in favor of closer ties to Russia, pro–EU demonstrators, many wearing makeshift body armor, attacked riot police and have been filmed shooting fireworks and flares toward the Parliament building.

The latest chapter in the crisis began on Thanksgiving Day, when the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Georgia’s recent parliamentary elections as “neither free nor fair,” part of a continued democratic backsliding “for which the ruling Georgian Dream party is fully responsible.”