This blog is written by a resident of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where the demonstrations took place.

“The authorities ignored the first demonstrations. Maybe they underestimated the event.

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Then suddenly the president announced the distribution of vouchers for fifty Georgian lari (€21) for socially vulnerable people to pay for electricity and gas. Of course some people tore the vouchers to pieces in front of cameras on Rustaveli Street, but others were contented.

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You can’t have people from the provinces standing in front of the parliament forever, and little by little people started to leave. Although they were angry, they didn’t know what to do with themselves. And at the same time, the government was launching an attack against the opposition.

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he government offered presidential elections instead of parliamentary ones. These will have a few comical candidates like the lawyer who offers his candidacy at every election. In any case, Misha (Mikhail Saakashvili) will win. People will come to vote and there will be nobody to vote for except him. Act two, Misha gets the second term, no need to worry about the parliamentary election… Who else can boast a president like this one?”

This blogger is originally from Abkhazia. He fled to Tbilisi in 1992 when war broke out over the independence of the Abkhazian area.

“Democracy in Georgia is not dead. It’s merely sleeping off an anaesthetic, and will be back to normal in a few days. The media block gave time to the government and opposition to talk about Georgia’s future, without noisy journalists demanding to know ‘what will your voters think?’

Misha surprised the nation when he announced the early presidential elections, and the referendum that will let the people decide when elections will take place.

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I’m sure that this decision was made with Washington’s approval. Now everything is in the hands of the people, who will decide on the leader. I’m sure that the elections will be transparent. Georgia will not be considered as a potential NATO member if elections are a sham. Misha is going to win anyway, he has no real competitors.”

This video shows the scene at Imedi station on 07 November. The blogger says the police squads arrived without any warning and opened fire [with rubber bullets) without provocation.

A worker for Imedi station describes the day the police raided their offices. A few days later the television station had its license revoked by the Tbilisi court.

“I was coming back to work from the shop when I saw crowds of special forces units going into the building. About 500 people including people from other TV stations gathered by the gates, everyone was yelling about shame and lawlessness.

We stood for an hour or so, while more police arrived, and in the end there were about 1000 people on the station’s territory. As people moved away from the gates and went towards the exit, special forces ran after the people firing rubber bullets. Until midnight the area was full of police and special forces who were catching people and beating them.

The next day some employees and other people came to the gates waiting for news, but we had to disperse ourselves to avoid provoking the police. Management turned up shortly after, and it turned out that everything inside the building had been broken, all of the equipment, computers, even decorations and our virtual studio. Financially the losses amount to about 20 million lari (€8.5m). The cars that were parked by the station were smashed up and audio equipment and valuables were stolen. The design office has been completely destroyed and every room is full of rubble. The archive and all of our projects are lost.

For now members of staff will keep getting paid and reconstruction will begin as soon as we are let inside.”