Georgia rocked by turmoil as police clash with protesters

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00:00Late on Thursday night, thousands of demonstrators in Tbilisi were blocked by a police cordon,

00:05which sought to break up the peaceful protest with water cannons and tear gas.

00:10Instead, the violence escalated, with demonstrators erecting barricades and setting them on fire,

00:16while masked police fired rubber bullets and brutally beat protesters and journalists.

00:22Georgia has been a tinderbox for weeks, as many worry the contentiously elected government

00:27is turning its back on the European Union and moving closer to Russia.

00:31They are going against the Georgian people's will and they want to drag us back to USSR,

00:36but that will never happen, because Georgian people will never let this happen.

00:42The most recent protests were sparked by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakidze's announcement

00:47that Georgia will delay pursuing EU accession until at least 2028.

00:53This came just hours after the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting

00:58the results of Georgia's October parliamentary elections and calling for a new vote.

01:04Pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili, who has accused Russia of interfering in Georgia's

01:09elections, renewed her assertion that the new parliament is unconstitutional.

01:14Today, this non-existent, illegitimate authority has declared not peace but war on its own

01:22people, on its past and on its future, on our future.

01:30On Thursday, the new parliament voted for Kobakidze to continue as prime minister.

01:35But constitutional law experts have said any of parliament's decisions are invalid, as

01:40it approved its own credentials without waiting for a court ruling on Zurabishvili's bid to

01:45annul the election results.

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