Every weekend, crowds assemble at Avlabari Square in the Armenian quarter of Tbilisi for what has become known as the "Saturday March." Protesters walk toward the Bridge of Love, continue to Freedom Square and then head to parliament, chanting against the government of Irakli Kobakhidze.
Monday marks two years since the contested parliamentary elections of 26 October 2024, which set off the country's political crisis. Demonstrations began two days later and reached their peak on 28 November, when the government announced it would not put the opening of EU membership negotiations on its agenda before the end of 2028.
The target of the protests has stayed the same for years: Georgian Dream, the ultraconservative party that has governed since 2012. Critics accuse it of growing authoritarianism and of steering the country back toward Moscow by suspending EU accession talks. Georgia received EU candidate status in 2023.
Alongside the unrest, the country is seeing a striking contrast. Many Georgians want a more democratic state and closer ties with Europe, yet tourists are arriving in growing numbers. According to the Georgian National Tourism Administration, 2025 brought more than 5.5 million international visits, an increase of 8.4% on 2024 and nearly ten times the roughly 560,000 recorded 20 years earlier. Visitors come from Europe, the Middle East and, in large numbers, Russia.
Russia's presence is a sensitive subject. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, tens of thousands of Russians relocated to Georgia, bringing money and starting businesses but also pushing up pressure on the property market by buying homes. That has stoked resentment among Georgians, who recall the early 1990s wars against Russian-backed separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the brief war with Moscow in August 2008, and who still regard Russia as an occupying power.
The country, about the size of Ireland with fewer than 4 million people, emerged from the Soviet collapse in 1991. Lying between Russia and Turkey, and alongside Armenia and Azerbaijan, it draws visitors with mountain villages along the Georgian Military Road, ancient Orthodox churches, post-Soviet cities, wine traditions stretching back millennia, the Black Sea port of Batumi and a cosmopolitan capital. Tbilisi's underground scene and repurposed industrial spaces have been compared with Berlin in the 1990s.
One of its landmarks, the Rustaveli theatre, was renovated 20 years ago by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire who founded Georgian Dream in 2012. Now in his 70s, Ivanishvili was prime minister from 2012 to 2013 and built his fortune in Russia in the 1990s.
Relations with Moscow rest on a contradiction. Diplomatic ties were cut after the 2008 conflict and Russia's consolidation of military control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which together make up about 20% of Georgian territory. Yet Russian trade, tourism, remittances, capital and energy imports still help support the economy. GDP grew 7.5% in 2025, the fifth straight year of expansion, but unemployment, low wages, widespread poverty and rural depopulation persist.
The challenges go beyond domestic politics. Relations with Brussels have worsened, with the EU criticising the government's record on the rule of law and political repression. Many also believe a stronger Moscow in the Ukraine war would increase its ability to pressure the Caucasus, raising the question of whether the future of an internationally isolated Georgia with limited domestic support depends in part on the fate of Ukraine.