Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili vowed to stay in office and defy the ruling party’s plan to replace her, saying the October parliamentary elections were illegitimate.
"There is no legitimate parliament therefore there is no legitimate president or inauguration. This is why I am staying as your president,” Zourabichvili said in televised address on Saturday after a second night of clashes between protesters and police in the capital, Tbilisi.
The U.S. suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia, saying the ruling Georgian Dream party’s "various anti-democratic actions” violated the mechanism’s core principles. Georgian Dream’s rejection of possible closer ties with Europe makes the country "more vulnerable to the Kremlin,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
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