The ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in the October 26 parliamentary elections following the release of official results, but the pro-Western opposition refused to accept the outcome, calling it a Kremlin “coup” and a “Russian special operation.” Nearly all of the opposition, as well as pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who long ago broke with Georgian Dream, said they would not accept the results and called for street protests on October 28.