As protesters confronted massed ranks of riot police in front of Georgia's parliament last week, a slightly built woman picked her way through the crowd. At a moment of national crisis, President Salome Zourabichvili had decided she needed to be with the people on the streets.

Georgia, which has been criticized for using "excessive force" to crack down on anti-government protests, has become increasingly authoritarian, according to Western governments.

Political parties are tolerated in the protests, some of them. And it's a very loosely organized, I would say. So that's very difficult after one point to have any control on such a movement, which is fed by the violence and by the violation of of human rights at all levels on the side of the authorities.

Protests erupt in Georgia after pro-Putin Dream Party leader stalls talks to join the EU over claims of foreign interference in country. (Credit: AP)

Days of protests have rocked Georgia following the government’s controversial decision to delay the former Soviet country’s bid to join the European Union. Tensions have been brewing for months in the South Caucasus nation of 3.

For days, pro-Western Georgians have clashed with police over the government’s plan to suspend plans for European Union membership.