Georgia’s outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili refused to step down Sunday as former soccer star and Kremlin-backed conservative Mikheil Kavelashvili took the oath of office. Zourabichvili said she would leave the presidential palace but insisted her successor is an illegitimate leader. Four opposition parties refused to participate in Sunday’s inaugural ceremony in Georgia’s Parliament in Tblisi after denouncing October’s elections as rigged. On Sunday, there were scuffles between police and protesters who gathered near Parliament. 

Anna Akhaladze: “Our illegitimate government is trying to appoint an illegitimate person who does not have any background in politics, diplomatics, economics, who does not know how to rule a country other than maybe score a goal once or twice in a match. He was a footballer that does not have any type of background or education, while we had a great president who had an education, great education, studied in France, Salome Zourabichvili. She has done so much for this country, and even right now she’s trying to get our voices heard in the West, talking to so many diplomats and trying to take this country in a right direction.”