Georgia, the United States and the UK all placed the blame on Russia’s military intelligence service for last October’s attack, the biggest in Georgia’s history.
Following a new eruption, western embassies in Tbilisi sought to restore talks aimed at preventing the country’s political crisis from spiraling out of control.
International law requires Tbilisi to invite the Russian diplomat to an upcoming meeting. But it would violate Georgian law, and the public reaction would be volatile.
Moscow, which heavily backs the de facto republic, called the events an “internal affair” of Abkhazia and appealed for talks between the government and opposition.
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.