STORY: :: Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze says
opposition arrests are 'more prevention than repression'
:: December 4, 2024
:: Tbilisi, Georgia
"I could not call it repression, it is more prevention than repression. Regarding the connection, it is a fact, one thing is confirmed, people were systematically supplied with pyrotechnics and other means by the relevant political forces, this is absolutely clear and it lies in the palm of the hand."
:: December 3, 2024
:: Kobakhidze did not provide evidence for the claim
that opposition forces had been supplying
:: protesters with fireworks, which they have
hurled at police during demonstrations
He said, without providing evidence, that opposition forces had been supplying protesters with fireworks, which they have hurled at police during demonstrations.
The government's decision to suspend EU talks has plunged the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people into political crisis and the authorities claim to have thwarted an attempted revolution.
Critics accuse the government of turning its back on the West and steering an increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian course, which the ruling party, Georgian Dream, denies.
The leader of one of Georgia's four main opposition parties has been detained by police in the capital Tbilisi after being knocked to the ground and falling unconscious, his party said on Wednesday.
The police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, and there was no immediate response to the assertion by the authorities, who have faced six nights of protests against a government decision to suspend talks on the country joining the European Union.
