In early February 2001, residents of Tamar Mepe Avenue in Tbilisi blocked one of the city’s central streets to protest ongoing power outages. The demonstration quickly escalated into a clash between protesters and police, who were deployed to disperse the crowd. As reported by the newspaper Kviris Palitra, “law enforcement prevailed in the chaos and restored traffic along the blocked avenue.”

The protest over blackouts ended that day, but the issue remained unresolved. Later that same day, representatives of public organizations in Tbilisi met with the chairman of the City Council, Lado Kakhadze, demanding concrete measures to address the city’s deepening electricity crisis.