Opposition Protest Dress Rehearsal In Georgia

Georgy Gachechiladze in action

Protest season is beginning already in Georgia, ahead of April 9, when the official opposition protests against Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili start.

From AP:

A singer whose brother is an opposition leader performed in a cage symbolizing what Saakashvili's foes say is the prison he has created for the people of Georgia.

Around 5,000 people attended Friday's concert and many then marched down the capital's main avenue to the parliament building.

Since January 20, the singer mentioned in the AP story, Giorgi Gachechiladze, who's also a poet and political satirist, has locked himself up and said he won't come out until Saakashvili resigns (except to do concerts).

In a curious mix of hunger strike, nighttime cable TV, and Big Brother, Gachechiladze's incarceration is the centerpiece of a popular TV show.

He told Reuters in February that, "Whatever happens, whether dead or alive, I'll emerge from here a winner."

-- Luke Allnutt