Georgians call on government to resign
Waving national and EU flags, thousands of Georgians take to the streets of the capital in one of the biggest anti-government rallies in years. Vanessa Johnston reports.
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Tens of thousands of Georgians take to the streets of Tbilisi demanding the government resign. Their grievances ... an economic crisis and worsening crime. The former Soviet republic has been battered by a plunge in the Russian rouble...as well as the conflict in Ukraine. Opposition leader Giga Bokeria says it's time for change: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONAL MOVEMENT LEADER, GIGA BOKERIA, SAYING: "We need to put an end, with peaceful and constitutional means, to the government which has put Georgia in the deep crisis which is blatantly telling us that they have no plan, because they don't acknowledge the crises, while people are losing jobs, and poverty is growing, and there is zero vision of how to stop this fall." Later, former president Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the crowd via video from Brussels. He left Georgia after his second presidency ended in 2013. The current Georgian government insists it's continuing Saakashvili's pro-Western course... ...but says it also wants better relations with its neighbor, Russia.