Faced with street protests in November, President Mikheil Saakashvili claimed that Russian-Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili was conspiring to bring down the government. So he closed the opposition-leaning private Imedi TV station (owned by Patarkatsishvili) and introduced a state of emergency for nine days, before calling an early presidential election for January 5.
格鲁吉亚最近的不稳定沉重打击了它作为一个新兴民主国家的国际名声，同时也对欧盟提出了挑战。面对11月份出现的街头抗议活动，萨卡什维利总统宣称俄罗斯-格鲁吉亚大亨帕塔尔卡齐什维利正在密谋推翻政府。因此他下令关闭了亲反对派的私有的伊梅季电视台（帕塔尔卡齐什维利是该电视台的所有人），并且实行九天的紧急状态。此前他已经下令在1月5日提前进行总统选举。