TBILISI, Nov. 25 (Reuters) - More than 5,000 Georgians protested in the capital Tbilisi on Thursday, trying to revive a weak opposition movement against President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Opponents of the pro-Western leader accuse him of monopolising power since the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that ousted a corrupt post-Soviet old guard in the Caucasus state, where pipelines carry Caspian oil to the West.
Weakened by war with Russia in 2008, Saakashvili — a larger-than-life and often polarising figure — has since reasserted control, aided by an ineffective opposition unable to oust him in months of protests in 2009.
Georgian opposition supporters rally protesting outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010. (AP)
The crowd in front of parliament blocked Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli avenue, but turnout was modest and analysts see little real threat to Saakashvili’s rule before his term ends in 2013.
"This gathering is the beginning of the demolition of the Saakashvili regime," said opposition politician and former Saakashvili ally Nino Burjanadze.
Saakashvili’s United National Movement easily won local elections in Georgia in May, in the first electoral test of the government since the 2008 war over rebel South Ossetia.
A Georgian opposition supporter shouts during a protest rally outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia,Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010. (AP)
Russia crushed an assault by Georgia’s U.S.-trained military on the breakaway pro-Russian region, launched after fatal skirmishes with separatists and months of Russian baiting.
On Tuesday, Saakashvili called for dialogue with Russia, but has so far received a cool response from Moscow. The opposition accuse him of manoeuvring to stay in power as prime minister under a constitutional shake-up that will shift power from the president to the premier from 2013. He has denied planning to "cling to power".
