Following the war with Russia in August 2008, there was political unrest in Tbilisi in May 2009. There were calls by the people for President Mikhail Saakashvili to be ousted. In the last week of May demonstrations were taking place outside the President’s Palace with a number of invited speakers from opposition parties. One of these was Levan Gachechiladze. He arrived in a blacked-out car. His “minders” did not take kindly to him being filmed by a TV crew. He gave his speech and left down the main street followed by his “minders”.

I wandered down the street after him to see if anything was happening. He was sitting on a roadside bench, being interviewed by someone. Both he, and his interviewer were speaking very quietly about proposals for replacing the President. Everyone was listening intently, trying to catch every word. The light was poor, the situation unique, and I recalled the earlier violent reaction to the TV crew; in the quiet, the sound of the shutter going off would be as subtle as a firecracker. I would regret not taking the picture.

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Tags: B&W, georgia, photograph, Politics, saakashvili, street, tbilisi, violence