Rallies again in Tbilisi. For several days, Rustaveli Avenue was blocked by demonstrators. Oppositionists and their sympathizers lived in tents around the parliament building for several days, and on the night of Sunday to Monday they blocked the building itself, hanging chains with locks on the door. On Monday morning, deputies could not get to workplaces. Clashes between protesters and deputies and the police began.

This time, several thousand protesters were indignant over the November 14 parliamentary vote on the adoption of the law on amendments to the Georgian Constitution regarding changes in the electoral system. Today, a mixed system operates in the parliamentary republic of Georgia (as in Russia, for example), when half of the 150 parliamentarians are elected by lists and half by single-member constituencies.

One of the demands of the opposition in the summer was the transition to a proportional election system, that is, according to lists (as was the case in Russia until 2016, for example). The ruling party promised to introduce the bill in parliament. The promise was fulfilled, but 12 votes were not enough during the vote (since the law is constitutional, a constitutional majority of 113 votes was required). Oppositionists accused Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the ruling party, Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia, of manipulation and demanded immediate early elections under the new system. The next parliamentary elections in Georgia are planned for next fall.

The instigators of today's riots, like in the summer, were activists and associates of the fugitive ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. He, in turn, after being expelled from Ukrainian politics, where he also abundantly inherited under Poroshenko, surfaced in Chisinau, where the parliamentary crisis also occurred. But with an unrealistic speed, the crisis was resolved, to Mishiko Nikolozovich’s deep chagrin, about which he had a long post on social networks.

Naturally, in such a quick and bloodless exit from the political crisis, the Moldovans Saakashvili personally blamed Moscow and Putin, mentioning the "usurpation of power by President Dodon." Moreover, formally in Moldova everything just happened exactly the opposite. The natural parliamentary union of democrats and socialists was practically restored, despite the fact (or maybe precisely because) that the leader of the democrats and the former owner of Moldova, Vlad Plahotniuc, is in the United States. The new government was voted, and early elections were avoided. Anyway, bye.

Apparently, Mishiko simply could not find a place in this Moldovan scheme. Incidentally, the protest in Tbilisi was radicalized exactly the day after Saakashvili was asked to leave Moldova. This, of course, is a coincidence.

It is curious that one of the violent participants in rallies in the Georgian capital - the former mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, told reporters that in Georgia "the process of caddafization of the Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, which operates by Putin’s methods, has begun."

By Monday evening, the illegal demonstration on Rustaveli Avenue was dispersed by the metropolitan police. To the delight of Tbilisi residents, order has been restored in the center of the capital.

The Russophobic rhetoric of the so-called opposition is clear - they don’t know the other. But the question arises, what do they expect in the next or extraordinary elections, when the Georgian economy is critically dependent on good relations with neighboring Russia? After the riots in early summer, the tourist season was disrupted in the wake of anti-Russian hysteria in Georgia. Tourists were simply wary of going to a country where such aggressive rhetoric is broadcast.

As a result, hundreds of Georgian firms serving the tourist flow went bankrupt, thousands of people lost their jobs, and tens of millions of dollars were missed, which is a lot for small Georgia. Tourism is an important, if not the main, branch of the economy of modern Georgia. In other areas the same thing. Russophobia is a terribly expensive pleasure for Georgians!

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This is evidenced by people throughout Georgia, cursing stubborn oppositionists and authorities at the same time because they did not suppress this wrecking activity.

Even if the opposition seizes power in Georgia in some unnatural way, how are they going to feed the country? The days when various Western foundations and even large states generously paid for Russophobia in the post-Soviet space have passed. It’s not that they don’t pay at all, but in a metered way, and there’s not enough for the whole country. Even the Baltic Limitrophs are not enough, what can we say about Georgia with Moldova.

Ukraine, by its bad example of irrational logic “to spite Russian mother's ears to frost,” continues to inspire Georgian oppositionists. As you know, a bad example is the most contagious.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.