Georgia is a nation in turmoil where two worlds are being played out in the capital
There was something desperately oppressive that came with being in Tbilisi today.
Perhaps it was the sight of hundreds of police officers, massed together and lurking in packs, waiting for something to happen. Maybe it was the dark clouds that poured rain over the streets.
But most likely it was the sense that this is a city, and a country, that is uncomfortable with itself. That Georgia is a nation in turmoil.
Protests continue in Georgia, where many are convinced their nation is led by imposters
A month after its general election, this is a country where many still seethe, convinced that their votes were negated by corruption and that their nation is now led by imposters.
Georgian Dream may have been announced as the winning party, but it was a victory widely denounced as illegitimate.
The European Union, which Georgia has long wanted to join, has pointedly refused to endorse the result. And so here in Tbilisi, there are two worlds being played out.
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19 Nov: Protesters clash with police in Georgia
In one, inside the towering Soviet-era government building, the MPs of Georgian Dream, along with their billionaire oligarch founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, have convened the new parliament for the first time, endorsed themselves as the leaders of Georgia and declared all to be well with the world.
And in the other universe, which starts a short stumble away in the square outside the same building, there are opposition politicians denouncing the election as a sham, the government as illegal and the new parliament as unconstitutional.
And around them are thousands of protesters who say their country has been stolen, some of whom think it’s all a Russian coup with Ivanishvili at its centre.
As a firecracker is hurled over a temporary metal barrier, and into the parliament building, I bump into Luka, who has left his job in Paris to become an activist in his home country.
He tells me he’s already been arrested once for protesting, and says he was beaten and thrown into jail. He is unrepentant and full of ire.
“This regime is a dictatorship,” he says. “They have no regard for human life. They have no regard for human decency. They care about money and staying in power.
“The Russian grasp is stronger than we’ve even realised. So this should be a message to everyone in Europe as well, that Russia is not that easy to deal with.”
He says he is proud that the protests have been peaceful, but there is a streak of frustration: “We’re trying to avoid any type of bloodshed but given the reality of what we are facing, it’s becoming more and more clear with every passing day that at some point, we will have to get physical.”
There is a stage in the front of the building, surrounded by an array of booming loudspeakers.
Giorgi Vashadze, leader of the opposition Unity movement and one of the country’s best-known politicians, is telling his audience to keep strong, insisting that they will win in the end.
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Vashadze is loud and forceful from the stage. When we meet a few minutes later, he is quieter and thoughtful. But ask him about the election, about the state of his country’s democracy, and his eyes light up.
“This is a constitutional coup,” he says. “This is completely against the Georgian constitution, against the will of Georgian people.
“This is a Russian special operation against Georgian national interest, and it’s been conducted by Georgian Dream.
“They call themselves the government of Georgia but from today on, we will not call them ‘the government’ anymore.
“We are fighting against Russian interests here in Georgia. So that is why we need support from our Western partners.”
He stops and fixes my gaze. I suspect that he sees our conversation as a way of getting his message out to some Western politicians.
I ask what kind of action he wants to see taken.
“Sanctions, sanctioning of the individuals who are behaving against the constitution and against the law and all different types of like real actions that they can follow.”
It is a call for somebody, somewhere, to do something. And that is the theme that comes across.
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These people, huddled against the downpour, banging the parliament’s wall, whistling and booing, feel as if they have been cheated.
But they also feel ignored and unseen, desperate for help and fearful of the future. In this relentless rain, it is very hard to feel optimistic.
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
The Ukrainian suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines had served in Ukraine’s Secret Service and in the Ukrainian Army’s special forces, Sky News understand.
Serhii K., 49, was arrested in northern Italy on Thursday following the issuance of a European arrest warrant by German prosecutors.
It is not known whether he was still serving at the time of the pipeline attack in 2022 and Ukraine’s government has always denied any involvement in the explosions.
According to sources close to the case, the suspect has been found in a three-star bungalow hotel named La Pescaccia in San Clemente, in the province of Rimini.
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Man arrested over Nord Stream attacks
When military officers from Italy’s Carabinieri investigative and operational units raided his bedroom, he didn’t try to resist the arrest.
The hotel’s employees have been questioned, but no further evidence or any weapons were found, the sources added.
Serhii arrived on Italy’s Adriatic coast earlier this week, and the purpose of his trip was a holiday. He was found with his two children and his wife.
At least one of the four people within his family had a travel ticket issued in Poland. He crossed the Italian border with his car with a Ukrainian license plate last Tuesday.
He was travelling with his passport, and he used his real identity to check into the hotel, triggering an emergency alert on a police server, we have been told.
A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the Baltic Sea. File pic: Roscosmos via Reuters
After the arrest, he was taken to the Rimini police station before being moved to a prison in Bologna, the regional capital, on Friday.
Deputy Bologna Prosecutor Licia Scagliarini has granted the German judicial authorities’ requests for Serhii’s surrender, but Sky News understands the man told the appeal court that he doesn’t consent to being handed over to Germany.
He also denied the charges and said he was in Ukraine during the Nord Stream sabotage. He added that he is currently in Italy for family reasons.
While leaving the court, he was seen making a typical Ukrainian nationalist ‘trident’ gesture to the reporters.
The next hearing is scheduled for 3 September, when the Bologna appeal court is set to decide whether Serhii will be extradited to Germany or not. He will remain in jail until then.
In Germany, he will face charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of structures.
German prosecutors believe he was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Serhii and his accomplices are believed to have set off from Rostock on Germany’s north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack.
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The explosions severely damaged three pipelines transporting gas from Russia to Europe. It represented a significant escalation in the Ukraine conflict and worsening of the continent’s energy supply crisis.
According to a US intelligence report leaked in 2023, a pro-Ukraine group was behind the attack. Yet, no group has ever claimed responsibility.
Spare pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. File pic: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer
Sky News understands Genoa’s Prosecutor’s Office in northern Italy has requested their colleagues in Bologna to share the information related to Serhii.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating another alleged sabotage linked to the Russian shadow fleet oil tanker Seajewel, which sank off the port of Savona last February.
On Thursday, they asked an investigative police unit to figure out whether there is a link between that episode and the Nord Stream attacks.
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