A former Premier League footballer has been appointed president of Georgia amid heightening tensions over the country’s relationship with Russia.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, 53, was a striker for Manchester City between 1996 and 1997, and later played for several clubs in the Swiss Super League.
He was elected to parliament in 2016, and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement – a splinter group of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Mr Kavelashvili has strongly anti-Western, often conspiratorial views. His election to the mostly ceremonial role sets him up to replace a pro-Western incumbent after weeks of protests against the government’s suspension of European Union accession talks.
Mr Kavelashvili was also one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power” – similar to a Russian law used to discredit organisations critical of the government.
The ex-footballer easily won the presidential vote as Georgian Dream controls a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017. It is made up of members of parliament, municipal councils and regional legislatures.
Protesters gathered outside Tbilisi’s parliament building in freezing conditions after Mr Kavelashvili’s appointment on Saturday morning. They brought their university diplomas – after critcism that Mr Kavelashvili lacks higher education – while others kicked footballs and waved red cards.
One protester Sandro Samkharadze said: ″[Kavelashvili] is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin.” Another waved a sign saying: “We are children of Europe.”
Demonstrators have vowed that the protests would continue.”If [the government] wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.
Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an election on 26 October that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the vote.
Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream – established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia – of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The ruling party has denied these accusations.
Georgian Dream recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-Western politician, has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends on Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.
Georgian Dream’s move to freeze the EU accession process until 2028, abruptly halting a long-standing national goal that is written into the country’s constitution, has provoked widespread anger in Georgia, where opinion polls show that seeking EU membership is overwhelmingly popular.
Thousands have gathered outside parliament every night since the suspension on 28 November, with riot police using water cannons and tear gas to disperse. Officers have also assaulted demonstrators and journalists.
The EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the foreign influence law.
Georgia was seen for decades as one of the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states, but relations with the West have soured this year over the country’s apparent foreign policy pivot and authoritarian drift.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Georgian Dream has moved to improve ties with Russia, which ruled Georgia for 200 years until 1991.
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