By Gleb Stolyarov and Felix Gentle
TBILISI (Reuters) – Mikheil Kavelashvili, a hardline critic of the West, was sworn in as president of Georgia on Sunday amid a political disaster after the federal government froze European Union utility talks in a transfer that sparked main protests.
Outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling occasion, mentioned in a defiant speech to supporters outdoors the presidential palace that she was leaving the residence butremained the authentic officeholder.
Zourabichvili says that Kavelashvili was not duly picked, because the lawmakers who selected him have been elected in an October parliamentary election that she says was marked by fraud. Georgia’s opposition events help her.
The Georgian Dream ruling occasion and the nation’s election fee say that the October election was free and truthful. The ruling occasion says Kavelashvili is the duly elected president.
