Tbilisi cops reclaim the streets for Biden visit

American and Georgian flags hang next to a police checkpoint a 200-300m south of Freedom Square.

Although I wasn’t able drive up much interest about U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Georgia with any of the publications I work with, I still figured the opposition would try and cause a fuss as there would be some international attention on the city.

But, when I decided to take a stroll downtown this afternoon such was definitely not the case — not for lack of trying, the police had simply seized up most of downtown Tbilisi, and there was no longer anywhere to protest. Police had barricaded everything within about a 2 km radius of the Parliament building using city buses as roadblocks backed up by armored vehicles and thousands of men in blue.

All the cab drivers I’ve had in the last few days have complained about the obstructions, but shrugged that it was more about Biden’s safety than shutting out the opposition. Reasonable point, but I lived in Washington for nearly 4 years — one year of which I lived a few hundred meters from the VP’s residence — and I have never seen this many cops in such a small area in my life. As the thousands of them swarmed the abandoned areas of Rustaveli taking up shelter under the umbrellas of street cafes and under the roofs of their appropriated buses, I couldn’t help but feel I was looking at an occupation — and, afterall, I just got back from Abkhazia.

In my mind this is nothing more than a convenient retaking of the streets after the opposition had mounted three months of sit-in protests blocking parts of streets near government buildings. Some opposition parties claimed they would demonstrate in Freedom Square Wednesday, which I doubt came to pass. While I wasn’t there, I also heard nothing about such demonstrations and today was unable to get within sight of the square. The police barricades also made good and sure no anti-Saakashvili demonstrators would ever be within earshot of his Western benefactor.