The last hour on the streets of the Georgian capital had been violent as officers, beating their shields with truncheons, surged forward to push the chanting crowds away from the graffiti-scrawled parliament building.
It was the afternoon of 14 May and the MPs inside needed to get out after passing the hated "foreign agents" law - which they did. But the police retreat, under a shower of plastic bottles and eggs, was raucously cheered.
Then the crowd started to sing: "So praise be to freedom, to freedom be praise." It was the Georgian national anthem, Tavisupleba, or Freedom, a bittersweet reminder to some of the older protesters of a time of great promise and disappointment. The significance of the "foreign agents" law may seem arcane to those outside Georgia, but for those on the streets it is an attempt to smear dissenting western voices as traitors.
Two decades ago it had been Mikheil Saakashvili, a US-educated and media-friendly ally of the west, leading the revolution. He became president with 96% of the vote but the support was genuine.
This story is from the May 24, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the May 24, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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