The Tbilisi offices of Georgia’s largest opposition party, the liberal and pro-Western United National Movement (UNM), were ransacked by a mob of unidentified individuals in what appears to have been a coordinated attack, the party said on Facebook on Saturday.
The post claimed that about 100 people took part in the attack, ransacking the facilities, destroying property and smashing the building’s windows. The UNM accused Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the ruling Georgia Dream party, of being behind the “vandalous attack”, which it said had been in response to the UNM “protecting the interests of Georgia and standing by the Georgian people”.
In a video posted by UNM Chairman Levan Khabeishvili that was taken shortly after the attack, the camera pans over a row of shattered windows and people can be heard shouting inside the building.
Khabeishvili said that the attackers had been armed with stones, sticks and wooden spears, while other witnesses said that bats and iron rods were also used. The police took an hour to arrive at the scene, Khabeishvili said, despite the nearest police station being less than 2 kilometres from the UNM office.