Georgia: Opposition Takes Fight to the Regions

Preparations for Georgia's May 26 Independence Day celebrations have kicked off with a campaign to haul in regional supporters to Tbilisi. Previous efforts have also been made, but were met with lackluster success.

Leading up the campaign, popular singer and opposition activist Gia Gachechiladze, known as "Utsnobi" (The Stranger), held a concert in Georgia's second-largest city Kutaisi on May 21. Utsnobi and opposition representatives moved further West on May 22 to campaign in Zugdidi.

But within the capital itself, the opposition is inciting greater response from angry residents than from government officials. A fight broke out on Tbilisi's Freedom Square between opposition activists and taxi drivers when the drivers tried to remove the opposition's makeshift prison cells and clear the square for traffic, Interpressnews reported.

Squabbles occurred May 21 after activists engaged in an hour-long blockade of two roads along the city's Mt'k'vari River.