Georgia will only be able to overcome the current crisis if the country’s current leadership resigns, Shalva Natelashvili, the leader of the opposition Labor Party, said on September 8.

The only way out of the current situation is to change the government peacefully, or to be more precise, to have the authorities resign,” he said at a news conference.

Natelashvili said that a government, “which is neither pro-Russian nor pro-American,” should come to power. “A government that is pro-Georgian and that establishes relations with both countries [Russia and U.S.], profitable for us,” he added.

He also said that Georgia was the victim of both Russian aggression and the rivalry between Russia and the United States.