in Georgia, a week of demonstrations between fear and violence

For the first time in a week, the entire Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi remained relatively calm and almost silent on the evening of Wednesday, December 4. There were half as many people – perhaps 25,000 people – as the previous weekend. And no fireworks, the authorities having closed the stores in the Georgian capital selling them. The movement, which began on Thursday, December 28, after the announcement by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the freezing of Georgia's integration process into the EU, harassed the law enforcement forces every night with these fireworks. Under the colonnades and in the streets adjacent to the Parliament, these sprays of color which burst just above the heads of the security forces triggered the « oh » and the « ah » from the crowd, interspersed with slogans chanted in unison, such as « Roussebo » (« Russians ») or « I will advise