New Year’s is the main winter holiday in the post-Soviet world, after the communists took Christmas customs and melded them into the more secular January 1. But Georgia’s mekvle tradition long predates this shift.
The Georgian government held a mass demonstration partly to claim that its supporters can outnumber protesters, a well-established tactic in Georgia’s political playbook.
Before it took power seven years ago, the Georgian Dream party asked citizens to put their wishes for the country in a box. Now, as the party is girding for critical elections, Eurasianet peeks inside.
Georgia’s behind-the-scenes ruler has made his most extensive comments to date on Georgia’s ongoing political crisis, also indulging in long digressions into psychoanalysis and motherhood.