Who is Mikheil Kavelashvili?

‘They say the human body, given time, builds a resistance to pain. But after being tear-gassed six times in 21 nights, I can’t say I’ve started to tolerate it, let alone appreciate it,’ says a colleague who hasn’t missed a single night of the pro-European protests on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue since 28 November. She counts herself lucky; so far, she has avoided the brutal beatings meted out by the masked riot police, nicknamed ‘robocops’. These enforcers have become the Georgian government’s ruthless arm for crushing dissent, their mission seemingly to maim and mangle those who find the prospect of embracing the Kremlin’s Russkiy mir less than appealing and aren’t afraid to say so.

The protests, initially ignited by anger over alleged electoral fraud, swelled to unprecedented numbers a month ago today. On 28 November, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze declared that Georgia would freeze EU accession talks until 2028, and rejected all EU budgetary support.