Newspapers and foreign news broadcasts were not available in the capital today and the police filled the streets. Residents wondered whether their country, a young and fragile democracy in a turbulent corner of the former Soviet Union, would backslide into authoritarian rule.  Appearing on national television at 7 p.m., three hours after calling the American ambassador in Tbilisi and notifying him of his plans for snap elections, Mr. Saakashvili both defended the police action and expressed a degree of regret.  He said he had been forced to act against a plot organized by Russia to destabilize Georgia and threaten its independence and experiment in democracy, and insisted that he was protecting the country and not his own power.  “My chair is worth nothing to me; we care about countries, not chairs,” he said. “Demand and you will receive. You demanded early elections. Here they are: early elections. Come and decide who you want to vote for.  “I do not want to be the president of a country that limits mass media and that declares emergency rule,” he added. “I can only rule the country if I have a renewed mandate from the people.”  He called on international organizations to send as many election observers as possible to ensure that the campaign and the voting would be free, fair and clean.  Russia has denied playing a role in the protests, which Mr. Saakashvili has said were coordinated in part by Russian intelligence officers working with several opposition leaders.  “This is nothing but an attempt to cover their own helplessness in resolving internal problems,” said Mikhail Kamynin, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Russia’s national nighttime news.  Relations between the Kremlin and Georgia, which was occupied for decades by the Soviet Union, are bitter. Mr. Saakashvili, in his nearly four years in office, has made membership in NATO and the European Union among his top foreign policy goals, and had eagerly developed relations with the United States.  The opposition has also said it was determined to remain free of Moscow’s influence and protect Georgian independence.  Mr. Saakashvili’s announcement effectively shaved nearly a year off his presidential term. It also marked a sharp shift from his emphatic refusal to change election dates or compromise with opposition demands.  The opposition accuses Mr. Saakashvili, an energetic politician, of running Georgia through a clique and of punishing dissent and using the police, prosecutors and judges for political tasks. It also says that Mr. Saakashvili has hoarded power and become aloof in the four year since peaceful protests led to the collapse of the post-Soviet government of Eduard Shevardnadze and brought him to office.  The government clearly hoped the announcement would shift the opposition from a protest stance to a campaign stance, and demonstrate to voters and Georgia’s international allies alike that Mr. Saakashvili, under intense pressure, was committed to democracy and had not chosen an autocratic path.  Although it was not clear whether Mr. Saakashvili’s concession would calm the anger among Georgia’s citizens after the events of the previous day, the declaration of a special election was cheered by opposition leaders, who called it a victory and vindication of their protests.  “Saakashvili, I think, understood when he woke up that he basically fought against the whole country,” Tina Khidasheli, a leader of the Republican Party, one of the many parties in the opposition movement, said by telephone. “I think that is what broke him finally the reaction of the people.”  There has not been an opposition politician in Georgia of Mr. Saakashvili’s stature since he rose to power. But opponents said he had severely miscalculated with the crackdown, and that voters would reject him at the polls on Jan. 5. “I believe he is done,” Ms. Khidasheli said. “I believe he has no chances.”  Mr. Patarkatsishvili, the co-owner of Imedi-TV and widely seen as Georgia’s wealthiest man, cautioned the opposition and its supporters against overconfidence. He issued a statement from outside the country warning that much remained uncertain about how the election would be conducted, and predicted that Mr. Saakashvili’s government would prevent prominent candidates from seeking office.  Some of the potential candidates are too young under the election law, he said, and one, Salome Zourabichvili, a former foreign minister, has not held citizenship long enough to seek the office. In what appeared to be a reference to himself, he predicted that others would be declared “enemies of the state.”  “The authorities are doing their utmost to prevent the real opposition from participating in the elections,” he said, and added that the opposition “must consolidate and nominate a single candidate with a clear program.”  One Western diplomat that while Mr. Saakashvili’s future as president was not guaranteed, he appeared for the moment to remain the country’s pre-eminent politician. The diplomat expressed relief that Mr. Saakashvili had offered a political solution to the crisis.  “As I understand it, this was the result of a lot of discussion within the government,” the diplomat said by telephone; he requested anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol. “There is obviously a calculated risk here. But he has reversed course.”  Many questions remained about the campaign and election ahead. Lincoln A. Mitchell, a Columbia University professor who closely follows Georgian politics and lived in Tbilisi from 2002 through 2004, said, for example, that to ensure a chance at a fair election Imedi-TV would have to be allowed to broadcast as an independent station. The station remained off the air tonight.  He said that Mr. Saakashvili had assessed the political field and scheduled an election that would be difficult to lose. “This election is not the election the opposition wants, because one-on-one no one can beat Saakashvili,” he said by telephone. “Is this really a gesture? Or is it a clever trick?”  The shift in the government’s position was made as Mr. Saakashvili and his government faced mounting international dismay. Aside from the question of who would win the election on Jan. 5 was the question of whether Mr. Saakashvili had tarnished his image permanently.  Witnesses, diplomats, journalists and demonstrators described a frightening clampdown, as riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets, batons and water cannon to chase demonstrators from the streets of Tbilisi. There were reports and video recordings of the police beating demonstrators who offered no resistance and of demonstrators in custody or prone on the ground. The police also attacked some of the journalists on the streets, and seized or destroyed their equipment. There was also a brief clash today between demonstrators and the police at a university in Batumi, on the Black Sea.  The United Nations, NATO, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe all expressed concern at the country’s descent into official violence or the imposition of a state of emergency. Thomas Hammarberg, the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, decried the crackdown.  “My reaction is that, obviously, according to the reports we have received, there was excessive use of violence by the police against the demonstrators,” he said by telephone.  Mr. Hammarberg said he was also alarmed that Georgia’s human rights ombudsman, Sozar Subari, was severely beaten by the police, even after he identified himself, and that independent news sources had been shut down.  He said that international human rights observers remained uncertain how many people had been arrested and how they had been treated. “The blockade on news is a problem there, because the facts did not come out,” he said.  There were indications that the authorities themselves, while they said that a police action was justified, were disturbed by elements of the events.  Shota Utiashvili, a senior official in the Interior Ministry, said that the ministry planned to investigate allegations of police misconduct and brutality once the state of emergency was lifted. “We will sit down and investigate these cases once the crisis is over,” he said by telephone.  He added that officers who beat journalists and seized or damaged their equipment had acted illegally. “Every officer had clear instructions not to touch the journalists, which they did not all follow, and we will investigate,” he said.  Mr. Utiashvili said none of the opposition leaders were in custody. He added that a few dozen demonstrators had been arrested and would be charged in administrative court with charges, including hooliganism, that carry fines or sentences of not more than 30 days in jail.
The surprise announcement appeared to be an effort to alleviate the domestic unrest and international concern after police action in Tbilisi.